


Streetlights and Bikes

by duckhyuck



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Blood, Childhood Friends, EXO is a rival bike crew, Fighting, Fluff, M/M, Mild Language, Minor Violence, Motorcycle crew AU, Motorcycles, This is honestly just a weird NCT/Akira inspired work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-07-24 12:32:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7508368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckhyuck/pseuds/duckhyuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>NCT biker crew. They grew up in the city together, they ride together, hell some of them live together. While the majority of bike crews work under corrupt government hands this crew works for the people. </p><p>AKA: Gay biker crew that knocks down the rich and fixes bikes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To the Garage and Home

Yellow hued lights become a blurred line in Doyoung’s peripherals as he zips down the barren highway at night. The yellow lights, street lamps to be more correct, comfort him. They are harmless; they heed no warning unlike the blaring variety of colours that strobe from opposing biker groups. 

Doyoung’s motorcycle is nothing special in fact it’s really shitty. He and his fellow members all have old bikes that were thrown away at the junkyard that sits on the outskirts of the city. They’d be lucky if they found one that could be turned on immediately. In most cases the bikes would require refurbishment. 

Doyoung slips out an unheard sigh as the wind caressing his helmet-less head removes his sense of hearing. He is very aware that Ten, the foreign boy who lacks in Korean speech, will be more than upset at him for bringing his bike back in shambles. Ten and a few other boys are responsible for cleaning up the junkyard bikes and making them run. They are just simple mechanics but they are just what the crew needs. After the brawl Doyoung just had it looks like all three will be required for this fixing.  
Doyoung bends his wrist a little more forward speeding up and veers off to the right, exiting the highway.

Ten’s face is exactly what Doyoung predicted it to be. The smaller boy stands off to the side with his mouth wide open as Doyoung pushes his now gas-less motorcycle into the small garage. 

It’s a cozy garage, it fits neatly in between and behind two tall buildings and backs along onto a face that alerts them they have reached the edge of the city. The white Christmas lights strung up onto the walls cost less to maintain and keep turned. They illuminate Ten’s astonished face to which Doyoung can’t bear to keep his eyes on his face and drop them to the dry concrete floor. 

“What...what is this!?” Ten shouts in his heavy foreign accent that has his Korean coming out like gibberish sometimes.

“Please give me a moment to explain.” Doyoung speaks shyly. He really does feel bad because the damage to his bike is as he knew it was, quit a hefty amount. He ponders if his impulse to partake in the night’s past event was really worth it. He thinks yes when he drops his backpack at Ten’s feet, the contents spilling out and turning Ten’s astonishment now to the wads of cash. 

“How....” The smaller boy starts to speak.

Wiping some of the dried blood off his upper lip Doyoung looks back at Ten’s face to speak. “One of the bigger crews was out tonight. They went around looting banks and shops at the core of downtown. I managed to slip in and pretend I was one of them for a little while. I made my escape after they caught on to me.”

“Hmm and just barely it looks like, you’re just as bent up as your bike. Do you remember which crew it was?” Ten asks, though the information doesn’t really matter. He already knows if it was a big group the stolen goods will just end up with another corrupted hand in the government. 

Doyoung shakes his head and is shook by the pain that surges in his head and neck. “No.” He whispers out softly. The pain continues to pulse and he guesses he really did get beaten up good. The pain is probably the latter effect of a received concussion. He raises his hand to apply pressure to his forehead hoping to relieve some of the stress. “Yeesh...” Doyoung mumbles under his breath as the pain continues to dance in his skull.

As Ten moved to bring Doyoung towards their garage’s sole couch that has an ugly 70’s floral pattern, Jaehyun came flying through the door that leads to a small tool storage room. 

“Bunny! You’re back!” Jaehyun shouts as he trots over to Ten and Doyoung rubbing oil off his hands with a white rag. As Jaehyun reaches his destination his glowing smile is replaced with a blank expression as he looks back and forth from Doyoung’s bike to Doyoung’s face. “What happened Doyounggie?” Jaehyun asks with a caring tone.

Ten takes Doyoung’s turn to reply because Doyoung doesn’t even look up to answer. “See for yourself Jae.” Ten points down to the backpack and contents that are still spilled out on the floor.

“Holy shit.” Jaehyun whispers staring wide eyed at the bag. “I thought you were just going out for a night ride, what is all of this?” Jaehyun’s voice is filled with more concern than sternness.

Ten replies for Doyoung once again. “He saw one of the big crews looting. He took the chance and managed to get some of that before they bent him and his bike up.” Turning to Doyoung Ten speaks again. “I’m surprised you managed to get away with your looted loot.” 

“Me too.” Doyoung sighs.

“I... erm... good work I guess. But really you shouldn’t have put yourself through all that. None of us like to see each other come back alone and beat up.” Jaehyun walked a little closer grabbing Doyoung’s raised wrist and pulling it down away from his face. With his hand removed Jaehyun gets a clear view of a blackening eye and dried blood pasted under his nose, on his bottom lip and chin. His gaze softens as he brings his eyes to meet with Doyoung’s. “Bring me with you next time. I’ve got a better punch than you.” He smiles playfully when Doyoung’s mouth quirks upwards. 

Ten drifts over to the couch giving them space.

“As if Jae, your bike riding skills are comparable to Ten’s at hiding his feelings from Johnny.” Doyoung teases.

“I’ll make your other nostril leak if you say some shit like that again.” Ten shouts from the couch. To this comment both Jaehyun and Doyoung giggle.

“I wouldn’t be mocking my skills Bunny, I’m the one driving you home tonight so keep a little bit of faith in me.” Jaehyun retorts to Doyoung’s previous comment. Doyoung grins in response. “Will you close up the garage Ten?” Jaehyun asks spinning to face the boy on the couch.

“Yeah, yeah, we can deal with Doyoung’s loot tomorrow. I think I might stay here tonight it’s raining and my dad probably has...um...company.” Ten replies.

Jaehyun and Doyoung nod understanding that “company” usually meant a temporary lover. Besides it was nice to have someone guarding the fort at night. Nobody comes by but anything is a possibility in this city. 

Jaehyun slinks an arm around Doyoung’s waist after promptly placing his jacket on him to insure Doyoung’s warmth on their rainy way back. The boys bid goodnight to Ten and walk outside the garage closing the garage door behind them. 

Jaehyun’s bike is kept outside beside Ten’s and he guides Doyoung slowly onto the bike’s passenger seat. Only Ten and Jaehyun have bikes with two seats. Ten’s can be used to carry a second person while Jaehyun’s can carry both people and the food he delivers. At first the others wanted the bigger bike but it made sense that the delivery boy, Jaehyun, should get it. 

Jaehyun swings his leg carefully over to the other side avoiding hitting Doyoung. As soon as he is seated Doyoung wraps his arms tightly around his waist and rests his forehead on Jaehyun’s shoulder. 

“I wish we had helmets, I get a little nervous riding with an already wounded passenger.” Jaehyun says keeping his gaze forward as he pulls out between the two buildings.

Doyoung raises his head and speaks into Jaehyun’s ear. “Safety is a luxury we cannot afford.”

“Hah... you’re absolutely right.” Jaehyun’s response is solemn. Life’s necessities are strapped to the backs of the city’s leaders and any rich man or woman. Simple things such as a helmet are deemed as useless to the average and under average citizen. Jaehyun assumes the government’s thinking lies along the lines of removing these securities to increase the amount of avoidable deaths to reduce population and poverty. It’s so disgusting and he knows he’s right about it.

The night is cool with the drizzle of rain. By the time the boys reach their home which sits above Doyoung’s parent’s restaurant it is one o’clock in the morning. Jaehyun really likes the place and he’s forever grateful that Doyoung lets him stay while his own parents were sent for work in two different and far cities. He didn’t want to leave his birth city nor his friends so when Doyoung offered him a bed and a job as their delivery boy for compensation he jumped on it. His parents had no complaint; this was just an easy way for them to avoid fighting over him.

Jaehyun parked the motorcycle in the alley way to the right of the building and in front of the stairs that lead up to their bedroom’s window. Turning the engine off and slinging himself off his bike he helps pull the half asleep Doyoung off his bike. Mumbling nothingness Doyoung leans into Jaehyun as they make their way up to the stairs to the window they leave unlocked. Quietly the boys enter their room.

“WAIT...DOYOUNG...WAIT STOP THE JACKET WILL MAKE THE BED WET!” Jaehyun strains his whisper as Doyoung completely ignores him and flops onto his bed in the soaking coat. “Idiot.” Jaehyun strains again. Jaehyun walks over to Doyoung and slowly unzips the jacket removing one arm then the other and finally pulling it out from under his back. He hangs it up in their closet to dry off. The he steps out of their room to return with a dampened cloth.

“Mmm—cold...” Sleep talking, Doyoung flip flops around in the wet sheets.

“Of course you are you dunce.” Jaehyun jokes as he approaches Doyoung with the warm cloth and begins dabbing at the dried blood on his face.

“Be nice to your hyung.” Doyoung snaps surprising Jaehyun with his newfound alertness. 

“I think I’m being quit the angel right now Bunny.” Jaehyun giggles as he continues to clean Doyoung up. “I never really saw you as much of a fighter and looking at all your bruises just reinforces my idea.” Jaehyun pokes at him.

“Is this how you treat all your hyungs? Even when they’re wounded?” Doyoung whines timidly. 

“No, I only treat you like this, hyung.” Jaehyun whispers back putting a little more emphasis on “hyung” and still dabbing at the cuts and scrapes he finds along Doyoung’s arms.

“It’s still really cold in my bed.” Even with his eyes closed Doyoung turns his head away to face the wall, avoiding Jaehyun’s direction. He’s too shy to ask Jaehyun the question sitting in his mind.

“Yes, you can sleep in my bed tonight Doyoung.” Jaehyun answers his unspoken question. He then gets up to discard the newly blood stained cloth into their clothes hamper to be washed later. Turning around he already finds that Doyoung has skipped across the room and landed in his bed. Doyoung’s back is against the wall and his body wrapped in the covers. Jaehyun finds the sight endearing and strands of Doyoung’s orange bangs flipped up in all directions is extremely cute. Jaehyun lies down gently beside him reaching his hand forward to swipe the wisps that cover Doyoung’s eyes away. “Goodnight Bunny.” The younger softly says.

Although Jaehyun himself is more than a little cold he lets his hyung keep all the blankets. He scoots closer to Doyoung for some warmth and finds himself drifting into slumber.


	2. Let's Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doyoung is about to get his ass scolded.

By the time morning comes it is drizzling outside. The patter of rain droplets could be heard pit patting against the window and its small ledge. 

Jaehyun wakes up first and when he opens his eyes he is gazing at Doyoung's pale cheeks and closed eyes. It makes Jaehyun's heart speed up a little. Guided by his beating heart Jaehyun reaches out and brushes the back of his hand ever so gently along Doyoung's cheek bone. He has such soft skin and as he lays there still asleep he looks stunning.

Doyoung stirs a little, pushing against Jaehyun's touch until he opens his eyes. When he meets with the younger's soft gaze his face flushes a light pink. 

Both of their hearts pound to an unknown beat. Neither understands the alluring and warm feeling growing inside of them. Their simple minds brush it off as feelings of sentiment. They’ve known each other for a long time and while they wouldn’t call it love they know it’s something as strong as it.

"Morning, Bunny!" Jaehyun calls out childishly, simultaneously pulling his hand back from his hyung's face.

“Guhhhhh. I’m so sore.” The older boy exclaims as he raises a finger to poke at the bruise under his left eye. “Mom hasn’t seen my face has she?”

“No she hasn’t come into the room yet so if you don’t want her to see I suggest we leave through the way we entered last night.” Jaehyun replies glancing over to the window.

“Mmm that would be wise.” Doyoung peeks over Jaehyun’s shoulder to look at the clock on the bedside table; it reads 10:45 am. “Ah it’s late we should head over to the garage now since we promised Ten we would sort out the loot today.” To this Jaehyun nods his head in response.

The boys hurriedly roll out of the shared bed and rush around each other to put on new clothes. Jaehyun wears his now fully dry jacket and Doyoung throws on his red windbreaker. 

“Heh almost matches your hair colour Bunny!” Jaehyun pipes out after seeing Doyoung’s final outfit selection.

“Very funny Jae, now let’s go.” Doyoung retorts as he slides the window up and hops onto the top platform of the stairs.

It’s a quick ride to the garage as traffic never occurs anymore. Most people can’t afford cars anymore so many choose to ride bicycles. Thus the only people on the highways would be the rich, the one and only city bus and other bike gangs.

When the boys arrive they react just in time to duck down avoiding a wrench thrown in their direction.

“OOooohhhh myyyy Ggggodddd Johnnnnnnnyyyy!!!!!” Yells Ten as he works in the garage’s repair area.

Johnny who is also by the entrance and also ducked to avoid the wrench that was specifically meant for him shouts back “You promised me you would quit!”

“I know what I promised but I failed so give me my lighter back.” Ten whines at him.

“Not a chance buddy.” Johnny then turns to inform Doyoung and Jaehyun of the event. “He told me he would stop shoving cancer sticks in his mouth but he lied. A lighter dropped out of his pocket while we were fixing the bike up and I snatched it. You’d think he’d be sorry for not keeping his word...” Johnny picks up the tossed wrench. “...But now he just wants me dead too.”

“I don’t want you dead I still need you to be my bitch while I work around here.” Ten snaps back.

“Five Thousand Won says Ten will be Johnny’s bitch once they get into bed together.” The words are spoken by Haechan, their youngest friend. 

To that comment Yuta, who is sitting beside Haechan on the couch, pockets out five thousand Won and hands it to the kid.

“You deserve it just for the comment.” Yuta gives Haechan a cheeky smile with his response to giving the money. Haechan gives a huge grin back.

Jaehyun snorts loudly, Doyoung can only stare at Haechan and Johnny’s face is redder than Doyoung’s windbreaker. Luckily Ten is still on the other side of the garage and completely misses the whole thing.

“Anyways... we’re supposed to divide up the loot today correct?” Doyoung directs his question to Ten.

“Oh don’t worry about sorting the loot. Taeyong and Yuta already divided up where the profit will be going.” Ten replies. “Oh and Taeyong wanted to talk to you but I don’t know where he is at the moment.” 

“I think he’s outside drying off the bikes and covering them up.” Yuta nods his head in the direction of where Taeyong would approximately be outside.

A couple of close by footsteps can be heard and Jaehyun turns and smiles. “Hey speak of the devil!” He greets Taeyong by throwing an arm around his shoulder and giving a small squeeze. “Apparently you wanted to talk to Doyoung?”

“Oh yeah, can I borrow you for a second Doyoung?” Taeyong slips out of Jaehyun’s arm and pulls on Doyoung’s arm to bring him outside the garage.

“You want to know about last night right?” Doyoung’s question is answered with Taeyong’s quick nod of the head.

“Specifically I want to know who you were trying to blend in with.” Taeyong says holding a strong gaze.

Doyoung keeps his voice hushed so others can’t hear. “Don’t freak out when I say this because I promise I haven’t told anyone yet. But I’m almost ninety percent sure it was EXO crew. The bikes were gray and one of the guys had the logo on his jacket.” 

“Are you kidding me Doyoung? If they have your face memorized we’re dead. Those guys have the ins with every top gang, crew and business, they’re going to use your description and hunt us down.” Taeyong’s voice is quiet but strained. “They’re always looking for an excuse to kill off small crews. Plus now that we’ve stolen from them we look like low lifers and petty thieves. Even if they knew the reason as to why we steal they wouldn’t give a shit.”

“What if we tried explaining and besides will they really come after us for one bag?” Doyoung tries to argue but is stopped.

“Doyoung, they literally rob banks to serve money hungry businesses and leaders just so they can be granted with the freedom to do whatever the fuck they want. One less Won they have to give away is one less ‘get away with it’ card. Do you really think that telling them we stole one of their loot bags so we could give it to the people they hate the most will change their heart? They have no mercy for the poor; they’d prefer us all dead.” Taeyong grips Doyoung’s shoulder refusing to give up his piercing gaze.

“I...uh I...I’m sorry Taeyong I’ve made a grave mistake. I wasn’t thinking, the loot was really for...I just you know it’s... Mark’s family can’t pay for it all.” Doyoung suppresses the tears that start welling up. 

“I’m aware and we all love Mark and we are going to do the best we can to keep earning some profit for him. But going out and getting your ass beat and profile taken by the cruelest bike crew out there is not the fucking answer.” Taeyong sighs and loosens his grip on Doyoung. “For now don’t worry, let’s just hope they have bigger problems than the stolen loot. Your heart is in the right place man.

“Hey now that you guys are done having a moment I want to go for a ride.” Haechan says with his head popped out around the corner.

“Did you hear any of our con—” Taeyong starts.

Haechan immediately cuts him off. “Nope, I just got here now. Yuta hyung fell asleep on the couch and his snoring is pissing me off. The mechanic hyungs are being gross with each other and Jaehyun hyung said he would go if Doyoung went with him. So really I’m just here to beg you.” Haechan explains and looks directly at Doyoung.

Doyoung leans over to whisper into Taeyong’s ear.” If we say no he’s going to ask why. Can you really keep a secret from Satan himself?” He finishes by chucking a glance back at Haechan.

Taeyong speaks out so they can all hear. “Alright fine, but you know the rules kid.”

“Yeah yeah, when have I not listened to my hyungs?” Haechan shouts as he heads back into the garage to gather Jaehyun.

“I can name a few times.” Yuta shouts rubbing his eyes from just waking up.

“Aww doesn’t matter you still love me anyway.” Haechan says back cutely. The youngest walks back out of the garage to uncover his bike.

“Hey you look a little pale Bunny.” Jaehyun reaches out and pats Doyoung on the head. “Is everything alright? Taeyong hyung wasn’t mean to you was he? I will fight him if he was.”

Doyoung giggles and Jaehyun proclaims that he is serious regardless.

“I am fine. Just... let’s make sure we stay a little extra cautious while riding today.” Doyoung loops his arm jokingly around Jaehyun’s and guides him out towards the bikes. “My bike is still broke so it looks like I’ll be riding with you today delivery boy!” 

Jaehyun grins from ear to ear. “I guess so bunny.”

Doyoung grips the younger’s arm a little tighter feeling the muscle. He can’t remember Jaehyun being in this good of shape. He feels his face become a little warmer and splits off from the other. He curses himself wishing he would have just asked Taeyong to borrow his bike but it’s too late now. Haechan is already moving to get to the main roads and Jaehyun is patting the seat in which Doyoung will sit. 

Doyoung pulls his windbreaker up over his nose in order to hide the heat on his face. Maybe he’s getting sick because the heat just gets worse when he slinks him arm around Jaehyun’s waist. Leaning a little more forward he catches a bit of Jaehyun’s scent and if he wasn’t already at boiling temperature he sure is now. Afraid that Jaehyun might notice his discomfort Doyoung glances into the bike’s mirrors. To his surprise Jaehyun looks a little red in the face too. 

Jaehyun sees Doyoung peeking at him in the mirror and gives a shy smile. Doyoung looks away and Jaehyun lets out a small laugh. He starts his bike up and moves to catch up with Haechan.

The cool breeze takes away some of the heat the boys feel but a lot of it still remains bubbling inside of them.

The rain clouds show signs of clearing and the boys ride.


	3. Fight Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyun fights, Doyoung has a crisis, Haechan helps a little.

If Doyoung had known that by the end of the day he would end up with a beaten up Jaehyun in his arms he would have just faked being ill so they wouldn’t have went out for the ride. Actually Doyoung wishes he could go back and just stay in his lane driving downtown. Wishes he minded his own business, put aside his own feelings. Wishes he avoided EXO, avoided the fight, avoided telling Taeyong, and more importantly avoided Jaehyun’s wounds. 

~~

Doyoung may have had a bit of anxiety when their ride out into the country first started but it had eventually passed and he was able to enjoy the trip. In fact, Doyoung relaxed so much that he didn’t pick up on Jaehyun’s nervous whispers of his name until he shouted at him.

“DOYOUNG!” The shout scared the living crap out of said boy.

“HMMM WHAT!!!” He responds to Jaehyun. Jaehyun throws an arm out in front him pointing to oncoming bikers.

“I think we may have a problem.”

Doyoung begins to panic once again. He knows that familiar sleek grey metal. By the way the crew members take up the whole two lanes in front of them he knows they aren’t going to be just passing by. What a fucking lucky day it is for Doyoung. Here comes EXO beating round two.

Jaehyun slams on the brakes and so does Haechan who is trailing right behind them.

“Doyoung take driving position, Haechan get on with Doyoung, we are cutting this ride short.” Jaehyun slides off his bike and pulls Doyoung down from the slightly higher passenger seat to the driver’s seat. “Don’t think I didn’t hear some of your conversation with Taeyong. I’m not waiting to find out why they are here and you aren’t either.” Jaehyun whispers in Doyoung’s ear.

All Doyoung can do is stare wide eyed and watch as Jaehyun gets onto Haechan’s bike. “Jae what are you going to do?”

“I’m making sure you and Haechan get back in one piece hyung.” He starts moving forward and as he passes Doyoung and Haechan he gives his last message. “Turn that bike around and GO!”

Haechan hops onto the bike lightning quick and wraps his arms around his hyung’s waist. He notices that Doyoung hasn't moved an inch and is one hundred percent zoned out. “Hyung!”

Haechan’s call makes Doyoung slams a foot down on the gas pedal and twists the motorcycle around leaving semicircle skid marks on the dirt road.

Without warning Doyoung veers off the dirt road and into the high grass and cornfield areas causing a yelp from the younger boy and a tighter grip. 

The country side gives great camouflage when you need to hide from rich guys looking for your head.

After five minutes of steady travel on the rougher terrain Haechan can feel the older shaking in his grip. A trembling that isn’t caused by the uneven ground.

“Hyung?” Haechan leans into to Doyoung more. “Are you alright hyung?”

Doyoung gives the smallest glance back to Haechan revealing tear stained cheeks. “I just left him Hae... all alone. He’s going to...get hurt...because of me.” Doyoung brings his eyes back to focus on the path in front of him.

Guilt strikes Haechan hard. His hyung was ordered to leave the scene to ensure his safety; it’s one of Taeyong’s rules. Younger members are to be protected first and foremost. So now here he and Doyoung are and Doyoung must feel like a coward for heading opposite ways because Jaehyun is younger than him. “Hyung, it’s not your fault. Jae hyung told us to go; besides you’re still hurt from before.”

Doyoung trembles again. “I should be protecting both of you... I am so weak I should have stopped him from charging at them. I should have...”

“Hyung! You are smart yet you can’t see the strategic in this. Your bike riding skills are superb if Jaehyun was driving we’d be caught dead and no offense but your punch is weak as fuck!” The younger desperately tries to convey his point to the older. “Jaehyun hyung knows what he is doing, he is going to be okay and... you are not weak hyung...you’re strong.”

Doyoung wipes his wet cheeks and speeds the bike up. “Hae I’m literally running away from Jaehyun and letting him fight the problem I started.”

“I know if I was in your position I wouldn’t leave hyung. But you have so much damn strength that you can follow our rules in the worst situations. Also, don’t think for a damn second I don’t know that you will be right back out there at hyung’s side once you get me back to garage.” Haechan has always been a good observer and while his sassy attitude made him seem like he gave zero fucks about others he knew all about his friends. He knows that Jaehyun and Doyoung have the best relationship out of anyone. He knows Jaehyun would protect Doyoung at any cost. He knows that Doyoung is intelligent, calm and extremely self conscious. He knows one day that Doyoung will find out that his strength comes in a form unlike a cleanly thrown punch. This is a shitty situation but he knows his hyungs will pull through.

~~~

Jaehyun glances back and sees Doyoung turn the bike around and head off. Good, he thinks to himself. Doyoung and Haechan will both be out of this. 

He speeds up heading towards the three oncoming EXO members. Once he estimates that he’s about 20 metres away he bends his wrist hard to break and shifts his bike so that he’s blocking the majority of the narrow dirt road. These guys won’t be passing anytime soon and he’ll make sure of it.

The approaching bikers slow down and come to a halt a short distance away from Jaehyun.

“Hmmm we weren’t really here for you. Where is your orange haired friend?” One of the bikers asks, his voice is muffled by the tinted helmet he’s wearing.

“He’s gone, how’d you know we were travelling these roads?” Jaehyun keeps his tone strong, voice deep and as intimidating as possible. He will show no fear in front of those that laid hands upon Doyoung.

“Oh kiddo we got eyes everywhere.” The middle biker is the only one to speak so far. “You see the boss man was not kind to us when he counted twenty nine bags instead of thirty. While we would normally let the small things slide we’d like to pass on the beating we got to your friend.”

“I don’t think I’ll be letting you anywhere fucking near him.” You already beat him senseless before he got away why a second round?” Jaehyun retorts. “It’s unlike you guys to carry petty grudges against people like us.”

“Hmmm yes it seems so but to be honest a second beating won’t make up for the loss of hearing in my right ear now will it. So this ain’t a petty grudge. We’ve come to kill and while that sounds a little extreme just consider that my hearing loss was the best punishment out everyone else’s. So I’m gonna ask you right now, move your fucking bike and let me ring that kid dry of his blood before I drain both of you. The middle biker tightens the straps on his gloves waiting for a response from Jaehyun.

Jaehyun gives a smirk. “As if fuckers!” And that’s it, Jaehyun jumps of his bike and brings his right leg up slamming it against the middle biker’s front of the bike throwing the guy off balance. Jaehyun brings his left leg up and connects his foot with the guy’s helmet sending it flying. 

The bikers on the right and left haven’t moved an inch. They only react when Jaehyun throws a jaw breaking punch at the middle guy.

As the smack talking middle biker groans on the dirt road it becomes a two on one battle between left biker and right biker. 

Punches are thrown here and there, every once in a while they get Jaehyun good. He knows he’ll have more than a couple marks on his body. Considering the position he is in he should be worrying about winning but he can’t help but feel nervous about how coming back banged up might affect Doyoung.

Three minutes later and it’s a one on one. Jaehyun’s right eye is swollen as hell after receiving five good punches to it. He refuses to stop now since the other guy is just as bent up as he is.

Jaehyun raises a fist and begins to swing but is halted by his opponent’s voice.

“STOP!” He shouts and Jaehyun hesitates and swings and misses.

“Why should I asshole?!” Jaehyun raises his fist to swing again.

“Because!” The guy throws his arms up and falls to the ground sitting on his butt. “If our crew comes and finds, which they will, and they see what you’ve done to us they’ll be after your whole crew’s head’s. That wouldn’t be cool would it now?”

“Oh yeah and what will your excuse be for the bruises from the fight?” Jaehyun questions.

“Simple man. All I have to say is the cops caught us speeding and we weren’t paying the fine. We never even saw you guys.” The man backs up towards the middle guy who seems somewhat coherent again.

“Fine.” Jaehyun sighs “Only because I wouldn’t know what to do with your bodies.”

To that the biker nods and picks up the one completely knocked out and puts him on his bike after assisting the middle biker with getting onto his own. 

They sacrifice the extra bike since there is no rider for it and they turn around and drive off.

Jaehyun plops himself on the ground, he is too sore to do anything. He looks to his right and sees red taillights. He looks to the left and notices biker headlights. Except he isn’t nervous he know that bike. It’s Doyoung. 

Knowing he’s safe he lets himself just this once pass out from the exhaustion of the fight hoping he won’t worry Doyoung too much...oh fuck who is he kidding. Doyoung is going to be a mess but he really can’t help himself. He slumps onto the ground as soon as he hears Doyoung’s breaks.


	4. Everybody is a Little Stressed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haechan stresses Johnny and Ten out. Taeyong is stressed like and hell but Yuta helps, Doyoung and Jaehyun are low key, high key a mess.

Haechan has never sprinted faster in his life. He sprints in between the buildings to the garage from the street side where Doyoung dropped him off. 

Scrambling to open the garage door he stops to think. He has no fucking clue about what’s happening right now. He relays some questions through his head. Why did we run? What the fuck, why were those guys after us? Does this have something to do with Doyoung and Taeyong’s conversation...

“TAEYONG HYUNG!” Haechan shouts as the garage door rises fully. “OH...oh...OHO MY GOD!” Haechan slaps both his hands over his eyes. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?????”

Johnny is sitting on the couch with Ten in his lap their mouths together in anything but a PG13 kiss. The boys break apart alarmed by Haechan’s scream and their faces match in a shade of shameful red. Ten slinks off Johnny’s lap and sits down beside him. Johnny coughs before turning to face Haechan who still has his hands over his eyes.

“Haechan why are you back— no never mind why do you need Taeyong?”

Haechan brings his hands back to his sides to respond to Johnny. “Ughh...” Shit he doesn’t know if he should tell Johnny since this might be the thing Taeyong wants to keep confidential. But Jaehyun may or may not be getting his ass beat right now. 

Johnny interrupts his thoughts. “He and Yuta left about twenty minutes ago, I’m not sure where they went though.”

“Oh...” Taeyong and Doyoung might be a little upset but honestly everyone is going to be asking questions if Jaehyun and Doyoung come back with wounds. Haechan decides the best bet is to just tell Johnny and Ten what he knows. “Okay so we may or may not have a large scale problem on our hands.”

For the next couple minutes Haechan gives up all that he knows, which isn’t a lot honestly but Ten seems to respond to everything he says.

“I knew it, I knew it!” Ten jumps up onto his feet. “That bastard Doyoung lied. Something didn’t sit well with me when he came in last night with that bag of loot. He never really spoke enough about the event for me to believe any of it.”

“Regardless of what is happening right now hyungs don’t be too hard on Doyoung hyung, whatever he did that night he isn’t feeling good about it.” Haechan doesn’t want everyone going and blasting off Doyoung’s face. Especially after the way Doyoung acted on the bike ride back to the garage. 

Johnny stands up next to Ten. “Should we head out after him then?”

“Yeah, that might be a good idea.” Haechan replies.

The three boys make their way out of the garage to the bikes and Haechan isn’t sure if he should share Ten’s bike with him or let Johnny go with Ten.  
“Hyung.” Haechan leans into Ten and speaks in a mocking voice. “I’m sorry about interrupting you before do you want to ride with Johnny hyung?” 

Ten’s facial colour which had calmed down goes very red again and he keeps his gaze down. “Bastard!” Johnny whips his head at Ten who shouts a little too loudly. “You shouldn’t even be coming with us brat now get on my fucking bike.”

Haechan lets out a giggle. “Regardless...” Haechan stops in front of the bike and puts his mouth close to Ten’s ear and whispers. “...Congratulations hyung.” 

The youngest receives a hard hit to the shoulder from his hyung and he lets a scream of fake pain and exaggeration out. He hops onto Ten’s passenger seat and Ten follows sitting himself in the driver’s.

Haechan and Ten leave first so Haechan can direct Ten on where to go, Johnny trails right behind.

~~

Taeyong keeps a lot of things to himself but lately he finds himself spilling his brains out to a certain Japanese friend.

“You’re thinking hard again you have that scowl on your face.” Yuta poke his forehead. “What’s on your mind? Talk to me.”

God fucking dammit no matter how hard Taeyong tries to keep from dumping everything onto Yuta he just can’t help it. He wonders when he developed such a weak spot for the brunette because every time he looks into Yuta’s eyes he opens his mouth and doesn’t close it.

“I... God it’s a lot and I’m not sure I want to put any of it on you.” Taeyong sighs.

“Taeyong you’re going to have to tell me sooner or later, don’t hold this in forever you know you can tell me anything I’ll be ok.”

It’s those five words ‘you can tell me anything’ that makes Taeyong completely succumb to the angel of a boy beside him.

As the two boys walk down the barren highway Taeyong lets all that is sitting heavy on his heart come out and touch Yuta’s ears. He spews everything, Doyoung’s night out, his own anxiety about EXO and all the pressure he feels about paying for Mark’s hospital treatment. 

Yuta listens, he is patient and he makes sure Taeyong knows he is all ears. These conversations don’t last long because Taeyong has a limit as to how much he can let out. 

Yuta knows he’ll have reached it when he tenses up and does literally anything to stop himself from shedding a tear.

Taeyong raises his hands and grabs fistfuls of his own hair and lets out a low growl. He squeezes his eyes shut and tries to put some thoughts together but at the moment he’s a little overwhelmed by all his stresses. 

Just like that Yuta knows and he stops them in their tracks and turns Taeyong’s body so they are facing each other. He looks at Taeyong who still has his eyes tightly closed. “It’s alright.” Yuta speaks softly and he raises his hands to grab at Taeyong’s wrists. He gently tugs and Taeyong lets go of his hair. Yuta brings Taeyong’s arms down to his sides. He grabs Taeyong’s right hand with his left while his own right hand reaches up and fixes Taeyong’s hair. He brushes little strands out of his eyes and places the pieces neatly to the sides.

Taeyong finally opens his glossy eyes but still refuses to look at Yuta’s face. “What’s alright?” He whispers.

Yuta gives a small smile and brings his right hand down so he’s holding both of Taeyong’s hands. “Crying, you never do it but it’s alright if you do. You don’t have to hold that part in too when you’re with me.” Yuta rubs the backs of Taeyong’s hands with his thumbs in comforting little circles.

“God fucking dammit Yuta.” Taeyong breathes out before giving in completely and letting a couple tears slide down his cheeks.

Yuta wraps his arms around Taeyong’s neck and Taeyong’s arms slink tightly around his waist. Taeyong tucks his head against Yuta’s neck and shoulder and stains Yuta’s sweater with tears. Between small hiccups Taeyong mumbles another ‘God damn’ and Yuta just giggles as he strokes a hand through Taeyong’s hair messing up what he once fixed.

~~

Doyoung didn’t give a shit about putting the kick stand down on Jaehyun’s bike he literally jumped of it and let the bike fall onto its side.

Doyoung screams Jaehyun’s name and he runs like hell before he slumps right down beside him.

Jaehyun still holds onto some of his consciousness regretting his feelings of fainting and in a failed attempt to let Doyoung know he’s okay he tries to sit up.

“No! Stop...just stop.” Doyoung puts a hand onto Jaehyun’s shoulder and pushes him back down gently. “You’re really hurt...and...I am so so...sorry.” Doyoung chokes on a sob. He keeps muttering sorry between sobs and tears and he pulls Jaehyun’s head onto his lap. “I am so godamn useless; even now I have to wait for the others to help bring you back. I am so weak and I am so sorry. This is my entire fault.” Doyoung puts his arm over his face to cover up all the shame he feels.

Jaehyun looks up at Doyoung and though he’s sore as fuck he lifts a hand to pull Doyoung’s arm away from his face. He smiles up at Doyoung. “You’re such a cry-baby Bunny!” He giggles when Doyoung frowns. “But don’t be so mean to yourself...” Jaehyun tries to finish his sentence but he can’t really think with the pounding in his head. 

Before Doyoung could become nervous over Jaehyun’s sudden lack of response Johnny, Ten and Haechan pull up. Doyoung rushes to dry his tear stained cheeks.

Doyoung opens his mouth to begin an explanation but Ten stops him in his tracks.

“Haechan told us what he knows; you don’t have to say a thing. Let’s just get the fuck outta here as quick as possible.”

Johnny parks his bike and struts over to Jaehyun and Doyoung. “Alright let’s get this guy back to the garage.” 

Doyoung gently lifts Jaehyun into the sitting position and throws himself under one of Jaehyun’s arms.

Johnny puts himself under the other arm. “Alrighty! Up we go!” 

The two boys are able to stand Jaehyun up but pull a painful groan out of him first. All of Jaehyun’s weight is on the two boys and they drag him over to his bike, which of course he won’t be driving.

“Jaehyun you’re an absolute madman!” Haechan pipes up after he was called over to help Jaehyun onto the bike. “Three guys and obviously you shook them up pretty good!” Haechan is all smiles and he grins even bigger when Jaehyun gives his best smile back.

Doyoung gets on the driver’s seat and Jaehyun’s weight is once again dumped on him. Except this time it’s all on his back.

“Try to keep conscious as much as possible buddy we wouldn’t want you falling off.” Johnny says giving a cheeky smile and he rubs Jaehyun’s back before going back to his bike. “Will you two go home from here?” Johnny directs his question at Doyoung.

“No... I wouldn’t want my mom to see us. We will stay the night at the garage so we have time to make an excuse and at least make Jaehyun look at little less beat up.” Doyoung glances back at Jaehyun to see if he’s going to go against his plans but the boy stays mute.

“Okidokie, I’ll help you and Jae settle down at the garage. Ten you and Haechan can head home for tonight.” Johnny starts up his bike.

“Sounds good.” Ten shouts.

Haechan reclaims his bike that Jaehyun took into the fight and he drives it up to ride alongside Ten. Both boys live in the same apartment complex downtown so they’ll take the trip back together.

The boys set off.

~~

When Johnny, Doyoung and Jaehyun get back to the garage Johnny rushes to pull the cushions off their couch to make a makeshift bed for Jaehyun. It’s better to have him on the floor to ensure he wouldn’t roll off the couch hurting him more. He then comes back out to assist Doyoung in bringing the younger into the garage.

After a couple awful groans eliciting from the younger boy, the older two finally get him laid down on the “bed”. 

Johnny steps outside to take a phone call. He’s the only one with a cell phone in the group. He isn’t much better off than the others but his job asked if he could purchase something just to keep in contact with him.

Doyoung leaves to go to the closest and he pulls out some clean rags that he fully inspects to ensure the cleanliness. Using the hose and drain in the corner of the closest he dampens one cloth with warm water and keeps the other dry.

Johnny returns and pulls the blanket out from under the small coffee table they have and places it next to Jaehyun. “I’ll let you do the rest, yeah?” Johnny asks putting a hand on Doyoung’s shoulder.

“Yeah, we’re good here, thank you.” Doyoung replies.

“Anytime, I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon and Yuta called me. He’s with Taeyong and don’t worry I said nothing about today to him. Well I was going to but right off the bat he said to keep any bad news I may have to myself. He also told me the he and Taeyong are running some errands tomorrow. In conclusion Taeyong is probably stressed the fuck out right now and needs a day off. Anyways...goodnight I guess.”

“Yeah, goodnight Johnny.”

Johnny slips out of the garage closing it leaving Jaehyun and Doyoung alone together.

Jaehyun is completely conked out on the cushions and Doyoung isn’t really sure what he should start doing. He assumes finding all areas of injury would be a good start. He begins with Jaehyun’s face. He brings the warm rag to his face and gently wipes the dried blood from under the boy’s nose. He then moves to his chin and finally up to a cut on the forehead. Jaehyun whimpers every once in a while when Doyoung brushes past a spot a little too tender. Doyoung also notes the badly swollen eye and leaves to return with a colder rag that he folds up into a square to place over it. 

After making sure Jaehyun’s face is cleaned he attempts to take Jaehyun out of his jacket. There are a couple rips in the front of it and if it gets anymore ruined Jaehyun might cry. At least this way Doyoung can bring it to the hospital with him when he visits Mark. Mark picked up some sewing skills while spending his time there and doesn’t ever mind the boys bring stuff to him for fixing.

During his attempts to take the jacket Jaehyun begins stirring.

“Doyounggie?” He whines

“Yes Jae.”

“I’m dizzy, I think I’m gonna...”

Jaehyun didn’t need to finish for Doyoung to get the clue. Doyoung runs back into the closest for the third time to retrieve the first bucket he can find from the shelf. He rushes back in time to get the bucket out in front of Jaehyun.

For a couple minutes Jaehyun heaves into the bucket. He didn’t eat much today so it’s mostly water and stomach acids. Doyoung puts a comforting hand on his back and rubs tenderly. 

“You’ve definitely got a concussion.” Doyoung sighs and he reaches out a thumb to brush away the tears on Jaehyun’s cheeks that formed while he was heaving. Doyoung finally removes Jae’s jacket since he’s sitting up he has easier access. He stands up folding the coat and places it on the coffee table. He returns and crouches in front of Jaehyun taking the younger boy’s face in his hands and looking him in the eye. “You’re definitely paler than before. You need to rest.”

“Aw hyung you always take such good care of me.” Jaehyun smiles and so do his eyes. 

Doyoung hates that he’s smiling, he should be so fucking angry with him, questioning everything that has just happened, blame him for all his wounds but no. Jaehyun just sits there relishing Doyoung’s nursing skills. For the second time today Doyoung cries.

“Ah stop that Bunny.” Jaehyun whispers, grabbing the hands on his cheeks. “You know I don’t hate you, I can wait for you to explain even then you don’t have to. Like Christ Doyoung you know I can never be mad at you.” Jaehyun puts a hand through his hyung’s hair. “Please stop crying hyung. I don’t like it when you cry.”

“Okay...*hiccup*...okay *sob*...I’ll try.” Doyoung squeezes his eyes in hope to stop the tears.

Jaehyun can only laugh at him and laughing may have been a bad decision because holy does his chest hurt. It’s certainly not pain from fighting that is for sure but oh my god it hurts. He begins to recognize it as the pain he felt when he woke up this morning and the pain he felt before heading out for the ride earlier today. The source of this pain is unknown to him but he does know that Doyoung is there every single time it happens. Jaehyun kinda likes the pain though; he likes how it guides him closer to Doyoung and makes him feel giddy all over. He cards his hand through Doyoung’s hair again and his heart skips a bit. He starts to think that he really really likes this feeling.

Doyoung feels the pain too but is too nervous to explore it. When Jaehyun ran his hand through his hair he almost passed out from the swelling in his chest, it’s probably the reason he kept crying too. Hoping to shake the feeling away Doyoung gets up to clean the vomit bucket out and dampen the rag again that fell to the floor when Jaehyun became nauseous. 

When Doyoung returns Jaehyun is back to lying down. Except this time he’s left half of the cushion space empty. Doyoung sets the bucket down nearby just encase Jaehyun feels sick again. He kneels down beside the boy lying down and folds the cloth up placing it once again over the swollen eye. 

“Hyung?”

“Mmm?

“You can sleep in my bed again.” Jaehyun gives an awful toothy grin.

“Jaehyun that is not your bed, those are cushions from our disgusting couch.”

“Hyuuuuunnggg it’s technically my bed for tonight.”

“There isn’t enough room I’ll hurt you.”

“Oh please, I’m tough.” Jaehyun smacks his chest lightly with his fist.

Doyoung snorts. 

“Besides where else are you gonna sleep?”

Doyoung has literally no answer to this. “Fine just let me turn the Christmas lights off, your head might not hurt a little less if it’s darker.”

Doyoung gets up and flips the little switch that hangs down by the garage door. It certainly becomes darker as the only light that seeps through comes from the moon. It creeps in through the three wide windows on the side of the garage giving things an unsettling blue hue.

Doyoung sits on the cushion next to Jaehyun and opens up the blanket Johnny left beside them. He throws it over Jaehyun first before he lies down and finally throws it over himself.

What a fucking awful idea this is Doyoung thinks. His chest pain returns and his heart won’t slow the fuck down. This is what he wanted to avoid. But this is exactly what Jaehyun wanted.

Jaehyun’s heart was hammering in his chest too. Unlike Doyoung he wanted to embrace the new feeling. Jaehyun evens his breathing out and before he falls asleep his slinks an arm over Doyoung quietly as to not startle the other boy. 

Doyoung feels Jaehyun’s arm against his waist but doesn’t do anything because he believes Jaehyun has been asleep ever since his breathing calmed. So he stills and lets it just be. His heart is at triple speed now though and he’s definitely not going to be able to sleep.

Doyoung lies silently for a long while until he hears a sudden whimper come from Jaehyun. Scared that he may be hurting Jaehyun he turns to look at the younger’s face. He calms down when he sees Jaehyun is still sleeping and isn’t shocked to see his cheeks a little damp. He’s probably in a lot of pain so Doyoung does what he always used to do it when Jaehyun got hurt. He reaches his hand out to brush the wetness from his cheeks and caresses them lovingly. He makes quiet shushes until Jaehyun’s whimpering stops. 

To keep Jaehyun quiet Doyoung places his arm around the other boy’s waist and snuggles into him. They fall asleep like this and for once Doyoung is at peace with the pain in his chest.


	5. Thank You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doyoung and Jaehyun visit Mark. Taeyong is better but Yuta is ????

The morning came awfully quick. Doyoung woke up from the coldness of the floor he ended up falling onto and Jaehyun was awakened from soreness. 

“Yeesh, I’m so stiff.” Doyoung sits up stretching out his back.

Jaehyun lets out a soft moan. He extends an arm out and latches his hand onto Doyoung’s arm. He pulls the taller boy back up onto the cushions with him. “You’re so cold  
Bunny, I’ll warm you up.” He gives a small squeeze to the older boy.

Doyoung’s face heats up a bit but he lets a smile slip from his mouth since Jaehyun hasn’t opened his eyes. “We should go to the hospital, I want to see Mark and hopefully we can sneak out a few painkillers.”

“Mmmkay.” Jaehyun opens his eyes, but one is still badly swollen. “Look Bunny we both have bruised eyes, battle scars!” Jaehyun giggles.

Doyoung can’t help but giggle back at the cuteness dripping from Jaehyun this morning. 

“But just a little longer hyung I don’t want to move right now.”

Eventually the boys do get up. Doyoung cleans up the cushions and what not. Jaehyun writes the note Doyoung instructed him to. It’s a small message to fill Johnny in on where the two will be for the day. Just encase he worries about their absence when he shows up to the garage. 

Doyoung packs up Jaehyun’s torn up jacket and gets the two of them out onto Jaehyun’s bike.

~~~

Taeyong spent the night at Yuta’s. He didn’t feel like going back to his empty apartment after spilling his emotions out. He wanted to be with someone, he refused to be lonely. Thankfully Yuta didn’t want Taeyong to be left to his own devices either.

Unlike Jaehyun and Doyoung the morning came a little later for the two. Yuta rose before Taeyong so he could make a quick breakfast. Nothing special just some scrambled eggs.

Taeyong woke up when he smelt the cooking. He threw the covers off himself and slid out of the bed. He walked out to the small kitchen/living area and plopped himself down on a chair at the dining table. The table fit three comfortably and if pulled away from the wall it could fit four. 

Taeyong let his head smack against the wood and groaned.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Yuta yelled at him as he came up from behind and then to his side. He placed the plate of eggs in front of Taeyong.  
“I can’t even remember anything from last night.” Taeyong sighed. 

“And you think slamming your forehead down onto my table is going to make you recall everything?” Yuta replied. “It was quite the night, you’ll be disappointed that you forgot.”

“Oh my god what does that mean?” Taeyong raised his head, fear glistening in his eyes as he stared at the eggs in front of him.

Yuta chuckled. “You were really cute, you wouldn’t let go of me all the way back to my place and even then when we got here you still clung to me. I swear you thought I was gonna vanish at some point, I woke up unable to breathe a couple times.” Yuta let another chuckle out. “I just managed to escape your grasp this morning.”

Taeyong huffed an embarrassed breath out. “Sorry about that.”

“No need to apologize; besides you have a really cute sleeping face.” Yuta goes off to retrieve his phone. He scrolls around on it for a second before shoving it in Taeyong’s face. “You look so grumpy hehe.” 

Taeyong blushes furiously as he’s faced with a picture of him sleeping. “OHHHH MY GODDD DELETE THAT.” Taeyong shrieks as he tries grabbing at Yuta’s phone. “Why such a close up too!?”

“Were you not listening you had a godamn death grip on me, it’s your fault I had to take it literally right in front of your face.” Yuta pounced away keeping his precious picture of Taeyong safe from the other’s reach. “Chill out and eat your eggs.” Yuta scolded.

Taeyong obliges frowning down at his plate. Yuta smiles before coming back over and joining him at the table.

“Thank you for the eggs.” Taeyong mutters.

“You’re welcome.” 

“And...thank you for last night too.” Taeyong tries hard to keep his face from going pink again.

“Ahh... you’re welcome.” Yuta lets a blush slip onto his cheeks before he looks down at his own plate to hide it. He shoves a forkful of eggs into his mouth thinking Taeyong was done speaking. Apparently he wasn’t.

“Yuta... I don’t know if this is me still being a bit of a mess from last night but...I just want to say...that...you’re like...really important to me.” Taeyong doesn’t dare look up. He should though because the pink that dusted over Yuta’s face was priceless.

“I...” Yuta starts to speak but he can’t. He’s a little choked up. “I...” He starts again but it’s futile and Yuta spills a couple tears.

“OH OH MY GOD I’M SO SORRY.” Taeyong shouts and he reaches his hands out towards Yuta but freezes in fear of making Yuta cry more.

“No, no don’t be sorry, you didn’t make me sad.” Yuta stutters as he chokes down a couple small sobs and sniffles. “You just have no idea how much your words mean to me.” Yuta brings his hands up and covers his eyes now embarrassed to be crying in front of Taeyong.

Taeyong just sits there dumbfounded. “Oh... I...I’m glad that you’re not mad at me.” It’s all Taeyong can say.

“It’s good, I’m good, I’m okay now.” Yuta dries his eyes. “Let’s finish eating and finally get the money out to the places we decided on.”

Taeyong doesn’t really believe Yuta but he nods in agreement. Although he just can’t find it in himself to finish his eggs. They’re so delicious but the speed of his heart and the sight of a blotchy faced Yuta distracts him from his hunger.

~~~ 

“Maaaaarrrrrkkkkk!” Doyoung yelps as he throws himself into said boy’s hospital room.

“Ah! Doyoung hyung! And Jaehyun!” The smaller sits up straighter in his bed. “I’ve missed you guys!”

“Us too we have lots to tell you!” Jaehyun pipes up.

The boys have been busy at the garage so now that they’re finally with Mark they spend the time catching up on missed weeks with each other. Doyoung hands Mark Jaehyun’s jacket. Jaehyun was unaware of its state so he gasped loudly making Mark promise that he will do his best job on fixing it up. He mentions it’ll be a good distraction for him when he can’t do any rehabilitation exercises. 

After talking for a long while Jaehyun excuses himself to find a washroom. Leaving Doyoung and Mark alone together.

“Hyung stop that look right now.”

Doyoung holds Mark’s hand gently. “I’m sorry I just can’t help it when I see you.”

“It’s not your fault. How many times must I say that the bike accident could have happened to any one of us?”

“I know, I know it’s just your our little bro, it shouldn’t have been you.”

“You know I wouldn’t ever want to place my injuries upon anyone else. Hyung please cheer up it is what it is. Besides I’ve made so much progress in my walking. We should be celebrating I can now walk down the hall using only my walker for assistance.”

Doyoung gave a light squeeze to Mark’s hand. “That’s incredible man.” Doyoung’s eyes glaze over.

“Aw hyung don’t cry.” Mark gives the most genuine smile and Doyoung only lets one tear slip past.

~~~ 

“That was fun wasn’t it?” Yuta grins.

“It was.” Taeyong replies with a matching grin.

“I wanna go to the park, I never get the chance!” Yuta tugs on Taeyong’s arm.

“It’s getting a little chilly, no?” 

“Come on Tae, just this once we’re always so busy back at the garage we never do things like this.” Yuta gives his best pouty face to increase his odds.

Fortunately Taeyong succumbs quickly to the boy’s charm. “Alright I guess we can go.”

“Yesssss!” Yuta pumps a fist in the air and loops an arm around Taeyong’s.

The walk to the park wasn’t too long considering they were already on the outskirts of downtown and the park was at the heart of it. Just like Taeyong had mentioned the night brought upon a stale coldness. 

Yuta didn’t mind leaning into Taeyong a little more for some warmth and it seemed that Taeyong didn’t mind either. 

The boys make their way over to the small bridge that extends over the equally small pond in the park. Side by side they lean on the bridge’s railing and glance down at their reflections in the water.

Yuta spoke up first. “About today, I’m sorry I started crying in front of you, it was a little uncalled for and pretty embarrassing.”

Taeyong side eyed Yuta. “Why would you be embarrassed, shouldn’t I be fifty shades of red because of my episode last night?” Taeyong slung his arm over Yuta’s shoulder and gave a comforting squeeze.

Yuta started out with laugh but it stopped as quickly as it started and turned into a cry. “Oh no, don’t look at me I just can’t keep to myself today.”

“Hey stop that. You keep preaching to me about letting go and now you’re saying the opposite.” Taeyong tugs away the hand Yuta was going to use to cover his face.

“It’s a little hard to follow my own advice.” Yuta lets out more sniffles.

“Talk to me, why are you crying?” Taeyong turns so his side is leaning against the railing and he is fully facing Yuta. “You’ve given me your ear so many times it’s my turn to listen now.”

Yuta breathes out a shaky sigh. He places his head against his hands that he has resting on the railing. “I guess you could say that I’m crying because of you but it’s not for a bad reason.”

Taeyong’s face goes from nervous to relief at Yuta’s explanation.

“Taeyong you’re my first friend. You were the first to talk to me with interest, the first to pick me up when I fell down, and the first to fight off anyone breathing down my neck. You taught me Korean; you welcomed me into your life and helped me settle into my own. Taeyong you were first to give a damn about my fucking existence when nobody would even fucking look at me.” Yuta practically broke down but still refused to show his face to Taeyong. “Today when you said that I was important to you, I just couldn’t believe it. Me? How could I be important to the person who has been my everything over the years? I...you’re important to me Taeyong...so damn important.” 

Taeyong had to be strong for Yuta’s sake but my god if he didn’t have to he’d have the whole damn ocean flowing out of his eye sockets. He also had a feeling that this wasn’t some sort of confession of friendship. He knew that they weren’t playing dumb about certain feelings anymore.

“I guess I’ve been quite a lot of firsts for you Yuta.” Taeyong chuckles as he tugs at Yuta to pull him into an embrace. “I hope I’m a first for this too.”

“For what? My emotional breakdown, cause that would be a yes, you’d be first for that.”

“No stupid this.” Taeyong brushed away Yuta’s tears with his thumbs. Keeping his face in his hands he pulled the brunette closer and snatched his lips in a light but heartfelt kiss.

Yuta lets out the quietest whimper and out of fear of his legs giving out he threw his arms around Taeyong’s neck as Taeyong placed his around his waist.

Their lips glided over one another’s. Eventually Yuta moaned a little too frequently for the public setting they were in so Taeyong broke the kiss. He places his forehead against Yuta’s and took in the boy’s image. His tear stained cheeks and red watery eyes. The red kiss swollen and saliva slick lips. The dark shades of pink tinting his cheeks. Everything about Yuta is beautiful and as Yuta stares back he is thinking the same about Taeyong.

“Will you stay at my place again tonight?” Yuta whispers and he keeps his eyes on Taeyong’s.

“Yeah, if that’s alright with you?” Taeyong replies.

Yuta smiles. “Yeah. It’s like, super alright with me.” 

Taeyong steals another chaste kiss from Yuta and they walk back hand in hand to Yuta’s apartment.


	6. Everybody Needs a Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody needs to chill, Yuta and Taeyong have begun to sort things out, Doyoung and Jaehyun become closer and Ten has a sleepover with Haechan.

~This part starts where chapter four left off with Haechan and Ten heading back to their apartments~

 

Last night the boys had both pulled into their apartment’s underground parking. They bid each other good night and parted to leave to their respected floors. The building had fifteen floors, Haechan lived on the twelfth and ironically Ten lived on the tenth. 

Haechan expected a rather quiet night, his dad was out of town on business and his mom was visiting relatives for the weekend. Haechan had politely refused the offer to visit with her, opting to stay in town with the guys. 

So when it was three in the morning and Haechan heard a knock on the door he was little more than skeptical as to who or what it might be. At first he shook it off but eventually realized that whoever was there was not going to let up on the knocking. 

Haechan trudged over to the door and looking through the peephole he was surprised and a little ticked off to see Ten standing there.

Haechan swung the door open. “Hyung what the fu—” Haechan stopped himself and looked Ten up and down. “Come inside hyung .”  
Ten had a fresh black eye and thin gash high on his cheekbone.  
Haechan had enough sense to know exactly what happened but he did not stop Ten from speaking up. 

“He really doesn’t like when I walk in and he’s with one of his girls. Haha he got me good this time, must have been with his favourite.” Ten slumped himself down onto the boy’s couch.

Haechan cleaned up his cut and tossed him some ice for his eye. “Hyung, my parents are gone for a couple more days just stay here with me.”

“I want to refuse you but I... is it alright if I stay? I’m a little tired of his fist.” 

“Of course hyung. Even when my parents are here you can always stay. I may not be Johnny but I’ll try to comfort you as best as I can.” Haechan sported a small smile hoping to ease Ten.

Ten smiled back receiving the younger's sincerity.

Haechan set Ten up on the couch with a blanket and spare pillow. “Do you want me to stay out here with you hyung? Kinda like a sleepover haha!” The question wasn’t really a joke but it was an easier way of asking if Ten needed him to be by his side.

“Alright, that sounds like fun I guess.” Ten responded back with a shy smile.

Haechan pulled his mattress out from his room and threw it beside the couch. He went back to his room and returned with his own blanket and pillow.

For the first half hour it was just Ten trying to settle in on the couch and Haechan occasionally flipping over.

Ten eventually broke the silence. “You won’t tell the others right?”

“About what hyung? Your dad? I wouldn’t eve—”

“No, no not that...” Ten takes a moment before he continues in a hushed whisper. “About me and Johnny. You won’t tell a soul right?”

“I wouldn’t dare hyung but you know the guys at the garage are more than understanding.”

“It’s not them Hae, I trust them with all my heart but if by chance it were to slip out to the wrong person and my dad found out...”

“I understand hyung my lips are sealed but if you ever want to talk I’m here.”

Ten was refused love from his father, his mother didn't live long enough to give anything to him. His friends though, they loved him and it took him forever to accept what he wasn't allowed to have as a kid. Johnny's love filled Ten in a places that no one would let a drop into during his childhood. The space Johnny couldn't fill was covered by the rest of the crew. 

Haechan would never know that his actions had finally filled Ten completely and overwhelmed by the overflowing emotion he had been denied for so long Ten cried.

~~

“MMMmmm Haechan shut the fucking curtains.” Ten mumbled.

“Do it yourself if you’re so pissy about it hyung.”

“I’ll beat your ass Hae.”

“Not if you want to stay over at my place again you won’t.”

“Touché you bastard touché.”

“I’m hungry I want breakfast. Wanna stop at McDonald’s before we go over to the garage hyung?”

“You bet your ass I do. I fucking love their hash browns.”

~~

Doyoung and Jaehyun leave the hospital around six o’clock and both were pretty hungry and tired. They decide their best bet is to just eat at home.  
It’d be a long drive if they ever hit traffic but without it the drive home from the hospital is only twenty minutes.

“Eomma we’re home.”

“Ah my boys where have you been off to these past few days I’ve missed you.” Doyoung’s mom pulled both boys into her arms.

“Eomma are there any leftover noodles?”

“Ah show up unexpected and beg for noodles?" Her smile says she's all joke "Yes we do, sit.”

Doyoung and Jaehyun sit down at the small booth by the window. The shop is cozy with one booth and three tables. They recently added a counter space near the kitchen for diner style seating. 

Their restaurant closes at seven o’clock and as the clock ticks near Doyoung’s mom flips the closing sign and the couple that finished their meal steps out. 

Doyoung’s mom eventually places one of their larger bowls of noodles in front of the boys for them to share. 

Half of the bowl is gone in seconds and Jaehyun decides it’s time to bug Doyoung. Placing his chopsticks down neatly and giving his best tired look. “Hyung I’m sleepy feed me!”

“Pfft nice try Jae.”

“Awww please hyung!” Jaehyun whines and gives a spectacular set of puppy dog eyes.

“Yah! Stop that look would ya, I’ll do it.” Doyoung picks up a bundle of noodles with his chopsticks and presents them to Jaehyun who takes them generously all while smiling.  
Doyoung blushes and feels that same giddiness in his chest. He picks up more noodles for his turn to eat. Is he tired? Why does he feel so warm? Maybe it’s the hot noodles? Maybe it’s the fact that sharing chopsticks with Jaehyun could be considered and indirect kiss? Doyoung has a lot of questions but for once they don’t interrupt his moment with Jaehyun. 

They finish the noodles and smile at each other stupidly refusing to out the other for their pink cheeks.

Both boys walk the bowl over to Doyoung’s mom whose washing dishes in the kitchen. 

“Do you want help eomma? Me and Jae will dry for you.”

“Ah I have such good boys.” She ruffles their hair. “Your parents would be proud to see their son, so hard working.” She puts a hand on Jaehyun’s shoulder.

Jaehyun bows his head. “Thank you for taking such good care of me.”

Doyoung’s mom smiles and leaves them to dry the dishes she’s washed.

Doyoung dries and Jaehyun puts the dishes in their respective spots of the kitchen. Their teamwork leads to a quick finish and Jaehyun locks the front door while Doyoung hits the lights before they head up the back stairs to the house portion of the building.

“We’re lucky mom didn’t question our bruises.”

“Yeah I’m not too surprised considering she didn’t even flinch when she saw your orange hair.”

“True.” Doyoung giggled. 

They washed up and headed into their beds.

Time ticked extremely slowly and Doyoung couldn't sleep even if he took three shots of NyQuil.

“Jae!” Doyoung harshly whispered to the other boy. 

“What?”

“Ah you’re still awake!”

“Yeah I can’t really find it in me to sleep, a lot of shit has happened and I’m not as tired as I was in throughout the day.”

“Can we go for a ride?”

“Right now?”

“Yeah, your bike still has gas left. I’ll drive.”

“Okay, yeah, sounds good.”

Doyoung and Jaehyun quietly gather themselves. Jaehyun borrows a black hoodie from Doyoung while the other sports his iconic red windbreaker.

Jaehyun stifles a giggle.

“Stop laughing at my fucking coat Jae.”

“It’s cute Bunny.”

“SHUT, UP.”

Jaehyun swings the latch on their window and pushes it up. The two scamper down the steps to Jae’s parked bike and hop on it. This time Doyoung grabs the handles and Jaehyun’s the one wrapping his arms around Doyoung’s slim waist. 

The night is cool and when Doyoung steers the bike onto the ramp leading to the country Jaehyun knows exactly where the boy plans on going.  
Jaehyun brings his mouth to Doyoung’s ear so the boy can hear him over the engine. “You want to see them don’t you?”

Doyoung nods and Jaehyun smiles. 

All the way to their destination Jaehyun keeps his forehead rested on Doyoung’s back.

~~

“We’re here and in record time too, forty-five minutes.”

Jaehyun lifts his head and slips off the bike, Doyoung follows. The path they’ve been travelling leads to the base of a steep hill. A sturdy truck with enough engine could make the trip up. A bike pulled and repaired from a junkyard would most definitely not.

Doyoung doesn’t know why that when he looks up the hill and then back at Jaehyun that he feels the need to reach a hand out to the other. He does so anyway. Jaehyun accepts. 

Hand in hand they conquer the hill, inching up the dirt road caved in by the trees along the side. They reach the clearing at the top. It has couple large rocks mounted in the ground. Jaehyun hops up onto the one that is wide with a flat surface and he reaches an arm down to pull Doyoung up.  
Doyoung sits cross-legged while Jaehyun keeps his knees bent in front of him.

“There they all are.” Jaehyun breathes out. “They never fail to keep their beauty. But they’re not as pretty as my Doyounngie!” Jaehyun pinches Doyoung’s cheek.

“Ah did you just compare me to the likes of the stars Jung Jae Hyun.”

“I did, are you disappointed?”

“Nope, I’m flattered.”

Jaehyun laughs.

They sit like that for a while necks craned upwards to see the galaxy that unfolds before their eyes. The elegance in the stars, the twinkle of the far away lights move Doyoung to tears. He hates and loves their presence. How they make him feel worthy of being alive but at the same time make him feel like nothing in the vastness of the universe. How they keep all his secrets but compel him to spill every little thing he has never spoken. How their existence pulls him to believe that maybe there is something more than this, more than a mind can comprehend. They make him think of everything and when he thinks of everything he thinks of nothing at all.  
His tears create damp spots on the rock as he refuses to break his gaze with the distant suns. They stream gently down his cheeks and shake Jaehyun to the core.

Jaehyun brings the sleeve of the hoodie to Doyoung’s face and wipe the wetness away. The contact breaks Doyoung’s trance and the orange haired boy looks at Jaehyun as if they are never going to see each other again.

“Bunny?” Jaehyun whispers. 

Doyoung lunges into his arms and silences him. “I’ve messed up Jae, I’m so stupid.” Doyoung sobs into Jaehyun’s shoulder.

Jaehyun pulls Doyoung’s legs so they wrap around him and he holds the boy closely. He rubs his back gently willing the other boys sobs away softly. When Doyoung calms he pulls the boy back to see his face. “Funny, even with your crying face you’re still more beautiful than all the constellations.”

“That’s cheesy as fuck Jae, what am I your girlfriend?”

They laugh.

“Well most friends don’t sit in each other’s laps and sob into shoulders under the stars at three-thirty in the morning.”

“You got me there Jae.”

Jaehyun wipes away the remaining tears still stained on Doyoung’s face. Even though Doyoung is calmed neither let go of the other. Doyoung rests his head on Jaehyun’s shoulder again, his nose brushing the boy’s pale neck. His hands play with the strings of the hoodie. This time Doyoung doesn’t find time to ask his heart questions he just lets it be. His heart beats for Jaehyun and only Jaehyun, it tells him it’s safe to fall asleep in his arms and so he does.

Jaehyun’s heart beats for Doyoung and since they were little it has refused to beat for another. Under the night’s sky he too is moved. The stars treat Doyoung roughly they torment the boy they push his mind to barriers he doesn’t want to cross. For Jaehyun the stars are gentle. They envelope him in feelings he rarely felt. They treat him kindly. When he looks at him he feels everything he feels when he looks at Doyoung. So Jaehyun decides that if he loves the stars he must also love Doyoung.

What a concept but he decides that right now his confession can wait. He holds the sleeping boy in his arms and with the stars watching he presses his lips against the other’s cheek. 

The stars shine a little more intensely.

~~

My wonderful friend was inspired by Doyoung's red windbreaker look and drew some wonderful fan art to show off in my story.  
You can also check his awful tumblr by copying this link: http://perryeol.tumblr.com/

or look him up @perryeol


	7. It's Happening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doyoung spills everything to the crew. Doyoung's bike finally works again. Good work Ten and Johnny. Haechan visits Mark. EXO crew cameo. Something is definitely brewing over in that clubhouse.

Morning came in shades of orange and yellow with pinkish clouds. Doyoung and Jaehyun didn’t return home from last night, they remained on the outlook till the first signs of sunrise. Then from where they were they headed directly over to the garage.

Doyoung drove while Jaehyun rested his eyes in the passenger seat. He sacrificed some sleep last night to watch over Doyoung. He’d catch up on what he missed later tonight.

On the ride there Doyoung’s mind was burning away at the realization that he was going to come clean about everything to the crew. He had decided last night it would be best to finally get everyone caught up on the ordeal. Maybe this way he’d free himself from some of his anxiety.

Doyoung and Jaehyun arrive exactly when Taeyong and Yuta pull in. When the boys park Doyoung quickly snatches Taeyong’s arm to pull him off to the side while Jaehyun and Yuta pass into the garage.

Taeyong is a little more than startled but he sees Doyoung's expression and can tell the boy is itching to say something.

“Today, I’m going...I have to tell them Taeyong. It’s eating away at me. Everybody needs to know. Even if they hate me for what I’ve done, they need to know.” Doyoung's breathing increases and he looks at Taeyong frantically, afraid he will be denied by Taeyong.

“Alright, alright calm down. You’re right; we probably shouldn’t have kept it a secret in the first place.” Taeyong rubs his eyes and lets a stressed out sigh. He contemplates his next words. “And if it’s today that everyone is deciding to be honest I should probably tell you that I filled Yuta in on everything. I’m need to say sorry about that. I wanted to tell you that before you found out on your own.”

Doyoung looks down, he isn't frustrated just a little jolted thinking that Taeyong was loosing sleep over the subject himself. He seems like an iron walled guy but he has worries to he guesses. “Ah that’s okay; it must have been hard for you to know everything too.” 

 

Taeyong puts an arm around Doyoung’s shoulders and gives a playful squeeze. “Also, no one is gonna hate you man, we’re family we gotta deal with each other’s shit.”

Doyoung flashes a small smile. He makes sure to take all the comfort Taeyong is giving him because talking to the crew about this is gonna feel like one too many thorns in the ass.

Doyoung takes a deep breath and him and Taeyong enter the garage. “Hey! Can everyone come sit for a moment.” 

Ten wipes grease off his hands a plops down beside Yuta on the couch. Johnny follows after sitting at Ten’s feet. Everyone is there accept for—  
Jaehyun comes from behind and squeezes Doyoung’s hand before letting go and seating himself on the floor beside Johnny.

The pressure from the hand holding lingers and Doyoung assumes Jaehyun already has an idea of what’s about to happen.

Taeyong remains by Doyoung’s side. It’s only fair considering he knows the story as well.

“Alright so I’m sure most of you have some sort of idea that shit has been going down.” Doyoung closes his eyes and breathes in. “It’s time to straighten things out completely.”

~~

“Holy shit! Why the fuck are they still after you?” Ten shouts. He had stayed calm for the majority of Doyoung’s speech but he decided to open up question time.  
“I think the bag of loot belonged to a very important client of theirs.” Doyoung could only guess that’d be the matter.

“I think you’re right.” Jaehyun pipes up. “When I was fighting three of the members one of them was babbling about their crew getting a punishment of a lifetime.” 

“Doyoung, you have absolutely hands down the shittiest luck out of all of us.” 

“Hm tell us something we don’t know Yuta.” Johnny says. 

“I’ll have to tell Haechan myself when he returns I guess.” Doyoung looks around realizing the younger isn’t present. He thought he had seen him but he saw wrong.

“Ah yeah he said something about going to visit Mark today.” Ten replies. “I’ll give him the heads up that we all know but I’ll leave it to you to inform him.”

~~

“Hyung!”

“Oh Haechan!”

“How goes it man?”

“It goes well I guess haha.”

“That’s good.”

Haechan walks over to Marks bed and plops himself comfortably next to the other. “Hyung I miss you when you’re not at the garage.” The younger gives and sad look and rests his head on Mark’s shoulder.

“Hey stop that. You and Doyoung hyung always get so down around me. I’m not dying, not yet at least.”

“Good point.” The younger laces his fingers with the other. “Anything new to update me on?”

“I can walk down the hall now.”

“ARE. YOU. SERIOUS.?” Haechan raises his head up and stares in complete disbelief at Mark.

“Hey are you underestimating your senior?”

“No dude I’m incredibly happy right now.” Haechan throws a hand over his glassy eyes but still gives his best smile. He's just a little overwhelmed and overjoyed that his hyung is doing so much better.

“Don’t cry I might cry too.” Mark giggles. “Now play checkers with me I’m bored playing with the nurses, they always let me win."

~~

At the garage the boys had settled into doing their own thing. Jaehyun helped Taeyong with cleaning some of the bikes and checking tire pressure. The rain they've had the past few days and country road drives left the bikes all mucky.

Yuta spent some time sweeping up the floor and tidying up the shelves and drawers. Ten and Johnny had a habit of leaving tools everywhere and Yuta made it his job to put them back in place.

Ten and Johnny were showing off their mighty fine job on Doyoung’s bike.

“Looks great guys, I owe you one.” Doyoung slides his fingers along the blue paneling that covers the top of the front tire.

“Nah you don’t owe us nothing but it wouldn’t hurt if you fed us some of your parents noodles, they’re so damn good.” Ten sighs dreaming of the savoury flavour.

“It’s a deal man.” Doyoung smirks as Johnny smacks Ten out of his dazed state.

A couple minutes later Jaehyun came storming into the garage with a cute pout on his face. “Taeyong hyung keeps scolding me on my cleaning. He’s being a burden.”

“Ah I thought you wouldn’t last this long Jae haha!” Yuta smiled and patted the boy’s back. “I’ll help him out if you put the rest of the tools back in the bins over there.” Yuta directed Jaehyun in the direction of the bins and popped out of the garage to help Taeyong.

“Taeyonngie don’t be mean to Jae.” Yuta soaked Jaehyun’s abandoned sponge in the bucket of soapy water.

“He wasn’t upset was he?” Taeyong sighed.

“Nah his pout was all acts and jokes.” Yuta squeezed the excess water and began cleaning the back tire of Taeyong’s bike. He stole a glance at his boyfriend of one whole day. Taeyong is aggressively biting his bottom lip and if Yuta didn’t know that it was the boy’s nervous habit he would have gotten a little turned on. 

“Tae.” Yuta called softly.

Taeyong looked up. SMACK. Yuta’s sponge landed flat against his face and flopped on the floor leaving Taeyong dripping from his nose in soapy water.

“Yuta I cannot believe.” Another smack of the sponge. “YUTA YOU KNOW I DON’T LIKE BEING DIRTY—

Yuta snatched Taeyong’s sponge and wringed it out over the boy’s head. “Loosen up a bit Tae.”

Taeyong rose to his feet and shot a shocking glare that had the other boy still. But just as quick as he was to snap he had the half full soapy bucket of water dumped on Yuta’s head. 

“Eeeeek.” Yuta squealed as he clutched his arms against his chest. 

Taeyong took the moment to take in Yuta’s look. The boys brown hair dampened to a black colour pasted on his forehead. Yuta’s fluttering eye lashes as he rubs away the soapy water. His pink cheeks from the chill the breeze gives his wet face. 

Yuta looks up to see Taeyong staring and slowly brings himself up to the other boy’s level. Taeyong snatches him in his arms and brings the two flat against each other. 

“You’re a damn good distraction, you know that.” Yuta giggles to that and Taeyong snatches his lips. Tugging gently at Yuta’s bottom lip. They stay like that, huffing small breaths and exploring the shape of each other’s mouth’s.

Yuta decides as nice as it is to be breath stolen by Taeyong they do need to finish cleaning the bikes. He brings the sponge he still has in his hand and pulls at the back of Taeyong’s collar shoving the damp and cold fabric down his shirt. Taeyong shrieks and Yuta laughs loudly. 

He really likes when Taeyong lets loose. He’s glad that he can help him relax every once in a while. He’s just really happy that he likes Taeyong and Taeyong likes him back.

Little did either know that Jaehyun finished cleaning up early and went to check and see if Yuta was being harassed by Taeyong. He wasn’t completely shocked to see them sucking faces he was more shocked that when he saw them he immediately thought of Doyoung. He was envious of them but wasn’t rude so he drifted back in the garage.

~~

 

“Oi Suho are we doing something about this?” 

“Of course, we aren’t letting this slip by. It’s quite a predicament this boy has gotten himself into and quite a predicament he has gotten us into too.” Suho brings a hand up to scratch the back of his head in thought. “Ah how annoying. Who the fuck was it again who let this kid get away with the bag?”

“Don’t worry about it, we already sent him on his way.”

“Shit that’s three members gone. What a waste. I expect more help from you from now on D.O.”

The smaller man just nods. “Do you want me to gather the rest? You mentioned that you wanted to bring up a plan.”

“Yeah if you could that would be fantastic. I’m sure everybody is itching for a little revenge.”

D.O disappears following orders and brings seven people back with him.

Suho has been sitting in a room with an abnormally long table. He tosses his fit onto the table dusting the white table cloth in soot from his boots. 

All other members take their respective seats in silence. They wait for their leader to speak.

“As you all know we’ve hit a couple bumps along the way, lost a couple members and such and then got the living day light beat out of us by the big man.”

The members still. A couple were lucky to get away with a scrape, the worst it got to was a broken leg, a shattered arm and the loss of hearing in an ear. Certainly not the worst punishment they’ve gotten but it was damaging enough that they were not letting a impoverish scum get away with what he caused.

“You all know I’m a pretty classy guy.” Suho starts again.

“But your jokes are shit.”

“Watch your mouth D.O. you’re not gonna want me to sit you out of the fun I’m thinking of.” Suho snaps back. “Anyways as I was saying, I like to keep it original. I heard from 

D.O, Baekhyun and Xiumin’s encounter with them that the punk has a crew.”

The eight members start raising smirks and quick glances at each other.

“Ah it’s no fun when you all catch on.” Suho whines. Suho slides his boots off the table and brings himself to a slow rise. Placing two hands on the table before him he leans in to speak.

“It’s time for a bike race boys.”

~~

The end of the day approached and Johnny and Ten were first to leave. Johnny had to go to work his late shift and Ten was just generally tired from the day’s repairs.

Taeyong stated that he had to get groceries and Yuta asked if he wanted help so they also left together. This left Doyoung and Jaehyun to close up base.

“Looks like we can ride our own bikes now.” Doyoung stated as he pushed his bike to the exit.

“Hmm.” Jaehyun replied.

“Although I won’t lie I didn’t mind having to share with you.” Doyoung spoke shyly and refused to look back at Jae.

“It is more efficient on gas you know.” Jaehyun replied. He didn’t want to make it seem like he was trying to get Doyoung to ride with him. But he was totally trying to get Doyoung to ride with him.

 

“You seem to not mind if I continue to ride with you.”

“I don’t mind at all.” Jaehyun replies a little too quickly and he’s faced with a growing blush on his cheeks.

Doyoung chuckles and finally turns to look at Jaehyun. “Alrighty then, take us home delivery boy.”

Jaehyun whispers under his breath so Doyoung can’t hear. “Anything for you Bunny.”

On their way back home Jaehyun thinks up a million more excuses to have Doyoung stay as a passenger on his bike. He doesn’t want to lose the warm feeling of having his hyung’s arms around him. To have the other boy’s cheek pressed against his back. To be able to see the way Doyoung’s orange hair flips around in the wind when he looks in his mirror. He wants to see it all and have it all for himself. He’ll make up a million more to keep everything this way.


	8. Ambush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unwanted customers at the restaurant. Not Jae, don't take Jae, anyone but him. "We'll bring him back in the morning as long as you got your leader with you."

It was a quiet ride back to their home. The only noise was the low hums of Jaehyun’s bike. When they arrived at the restaurant everything looked in order but there was an unusual calmness about it. Or maybe it was just the stillness in the air. 

The sun set and everything was just pure silence. The bike was turned off and if pin were to drop, it would have been noticed. 

Jaehyun felt the atmosphere and so did Doyoung. They remained seated on the bike.

“Hyung, something is amiss. Something isn’t right.”

“I feel it too Jae everything it's too...calm I guess.” Doyoung straightened out his back and slipped soundlessly off the bike. Jaehyun followed suit. “Jae there isn’t anyone on the sidewalk what the heck.” Doyoung flipped his head back and forth eyeing up both right and left of the street. Doyoung swallowed nervously, his palms sweaty.

That’s when Jae noticed it. “Doyoung... walk back to me quietly.”

“Huh... what are you talking about Jae?” Doyoung peered back at Jaehyun and saw fear seeping from the younger boy’s eyes. “Jae?”

“Doyoung please.” The need in Jaehyun’s voice was evident now. 

Doyoung walked back to Jaehyun calmly. Jaehyun linked his hand in Doyoung’s. “Don’t panic okay but I think there may be some people in the restaurant we don’t want to see empty handed.”

“What? Wait! You don’t mean— Doyoung’s voice is muffled by Jaehyun’s hand.

“Keep quiet hyung. We aren’t by ourselves out here.” Jaehyun gave a quick glance up to the rough of the building and Doyoung caught on to his message. “Just follow my lead okay.” 

Jaehyun crouched down by his bike and pulled the bat he kept strapped to the side of the bike. They weren’t a crew normally known to get into fights but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t run into others who didn’t mind a good scruff. 

Gripping the bat in his left and reclaiming Doyoung’s hand with his right he took a deep breath. 

“Jae you don’t think they have my parents...”

Jaehyun gave his elder a small squeeze of the hand for reassurance. “Let’s just see what they want okay?” 

They began walking out to the front of the building. Stopping out front of the door they observed the inside. Not a person in sight. 

“Mum.” Doyoung whined. Jaehyun swung the door open and pulled Doyoung in behind him. They crept forward and then out of their peripheral a figure rose up from the corner booth. He was seated on the side hidden from on lookers outside. Jaehyun and Doyoung stiffened.

“Woah woah calm down there boys.” The older man smiled. “Wouldn’t want to hurt anybody now would we?” His eyes on Jaehyun's bat.

“My parents... what did you do to them?” Doyoung pointed and shaking finger at the man.

“Okay don’t yell at me when I say what we did cause I don’t like screaming but we knocked them out...lightly.”

“YOU DID WHAT—

“Don’t yell Jesus Christ! I just fucking said—

“What THE ACTUAL FUCK YOU BEAT MY PARENTS?”

“NO JESUS NO, I don’t touch the elderly, D.O. was the one who put the cloth to their faces.” The man pointed behind the counter where a smaller figure popped up. “That’s D.O. and I’m Suho and there’s also a Kai around here somewhere but regardless if you’re done screaming like a bitch I have something to talk about.”

Suho gestured for Doyoung and Jaehyun to sit down at the both with him. D.O sat motionless at one of the diner stools simply to observe.

Doyoung looked around anxiously but was guided by Jaehyun who was making his way to sit with EXO’s leader. Doyoung couldn’t believe how calm Jaehyun was, he felt embarrassed about his screaming and his nerves. The situation could have called for worse emotions from him. He accepted defeat and followed Jae over to the seat.

“Alrighty. So I’m positive that you know you’ve fucked up right.” Suho eyed down Doyoung. He folded his hands and rested his elbows on the table leaning in towards Doyoung and Jaehyun. “Yes?”

Doyoung nodded his head half in response half in shame.

“Wonderful and I’m sure you know my crew and how we don’t particularly like dealing with people like you.”  
Doyoung and Jaehyun both nod.

“Great but I’ll have you know that our boss isn’t happy so we aren’t either. I want revenge but I also want you out of my fucking face. You hear me?”

“We feel the same.” Jaehyun smirks and Suho admires his cheekiness. 

“How dandy then.” Suho licked his lips and leaned back into his seat placing his folded hands in his lap. “I have a plan that involves your crew and mine. If you’re willing to listen I will not have D.O kill both of you right here, right now.

Doyoung swallowed and looked nervously at Jaehyun beside him. Jaehyun still remained composed. Fuck Jaehyun how could he be like this after the threat of being murdered had just been served to the two of them. 

“Hmm you make a strong point sir.” Jaehyun put a finger on his chin in fake ponder. “Shoot us. With that plan of yours of course.”

Suho laughed. “I like you boy. You’ve got guts. See there’s only one problem. I’m very aware you two boys are not the leaders of your crew and I’m a man who only speaks with people of my class, not like your leader is of my class, but he's the closest I'll get. So while I’d personally love to just kill you and pretend I never even said a word I can't because the plan requires you two.

The younger boys gave confused looks. 

“I wanna talk to your leader. Arrange this shit and be on with my life. I’m gonna need you to make this happen. Better summary?” Suho raised a finger and lazily pointed it at Doyoung. “You’re gonna bring me to your camp out so I can talk to him.”

“Right now?” Doyoung whispered.

“Preferably.”

“I don’t think we can, he won’t be back at our place until morning.”

“Hmm I’m not one for visiting homes so we’ll have to wait won’t we D.O.”

The smaller man sitting at the diner just shrugs in response.

“Tomorrow then is that alright?”

Doyoung looks at Jaehyun who nods and then turns back to Suho. “I guess so.”

“Excellent. D.O come over here.” Suho rises and removes himself from the booth. “We’re gonna need him.” He points directly at Jaehyun.

“What?!” Doyoung yells but before he can do anything Jaehyun has been pulled from his seat and cuffed by Suho’s crew member. “Hey!” Doyoung jumps up but is halted by the barrel of a gun. It's aimed directly between his eyes.

“Ah ah ahh.” Suho tsks and shakes his head. "Don’t disappoint my boys, they wouldn’t want to miss out on riding against the fastest.”

“How do you know that I’m the—

“Let’s go D.O!”

“Jae!” Doyoung reaches a hand out but it’s futile. Jaehyun just shakes his head at him and like before remains calm. Doyoung watches bitterly as the three walk out of view.

Doyoung takes a moment to re gather himself and thinks that helping his parents is going to be better than taking a bullet.

Doyoung dashes behind the counter where he finds his mom and dad knocked out slouched against the cabinets. He carries his mom up to their room first and then half drags half carries his dad up after. He hopes they won’t question him about the incident when they wake up. He can probably play it off like they got robbed or something. He'll just have to deal with them later. 

Doyoung isn’t sure what the best plan of action is so he thinks heading to the person closest to him would be best. That means Johnny who works at the convenience store a couple blocks away. He jumps out of the restaurant to get to Jaehyun’s bike and god dammit. He should have seen this one coming. Jaehyun's bike is thrown on its side and its front tire is missing. Probably that Kai guy. Fuck him. 

Now it’s gonna be a Twenty minute walk or a ten minute sprint. He settles for the sprint.

Doyoung runs like he’s never run before. Huffing out fast breaths and inhaling just as quick. He wills his tears away and focuses on getting to Johnny. He has held up well for the most part and he keeps it up so he can keep running. 

It's quiet like before the only sounds are the echoing smacks his shoes make when they hit the ground. It’s gotten really dark out, the only illumination being the streetlights. His shadow appears under every patch of light. It reminds him of his drive home that night that seems so long ago. When he rode his bike down the highway away from the problem that started this all. The thought is too much and he wills it away.

Doyoung yells out an aggravated sigh and arrives at the store. Completely out of breath he swings the door open and stumbles towards the counter falling to his knees in front of Johnny. The smack of his weight hitting the ground leads Johnny to put his book down and look over the counter.

“JESUS CHRIST DOYOUNG?” Johnny hits his book off the counter and fumbles to get out and around to Doyoung. “What the fuck man, what’s wrong?”

Doyoung wheezes and clutches his rising and falling chest. He raises a finger to tell Johnny that he needs a moment. Johnny understands and crouches down to rub Doyoung’s back. Before Doyoung can talk his tears speak first. The combination of his run and Jaehyun must have gotten to him finally.

“Dude... it wasn’t...them was it?” Johnny whispers.

Doyoung looks up with his doe eyes wide and teary and Johnny knows all too well that it was indeed them. 

“Jae...they took Jae.” Doyoung inhales sharply and hiccups. “Taeyong... they want to talk...to...Tae.”

Johnny waited patiently for the other boy to finish, making sure he had nothing more to say. When the other pulled his knees into his chest and balled himself up Johnny took the liberty of wrapping his arms around him. “It’ll be okay buddy, Jae’s a tough guy and if they wanna talk to Taeyong they won’t do anything to him.”

Doyoung sniffled. His breathing had finally calmed but he was still spilling a few tears here and there. “We need to tell the others, we need to make sure Taeyong is at the garage in the morning. Or that guy is definitely gonna snap.” Doyoung also wanted to tell Johnny about the threats and the gun but he needed the other to stay calm for the sake of both of them right now.

“My shift is almost over; manager Jonghyun should be back any minute to relieve me.” Johnny glanced down at his watch. “It’s ten o’clock that means we have enough time to go get Ten and Haechan and head over to Taeyong’s.”

“What about Yuta.” Doyoung mumbled.

“What do you mean? Wait! You don’t know? Doyoung how dense are you.”

“Johnny please...”

“Whatever man but Yuta will be at Taeyong’s that is for sure.”

~~

“Couldn’t resist me eh Suho?”

“Haha shut your mouth kid.” Suho kept Jaehyun moving along. "I don't normally take people like you with me but I need you to bring me to your place tomorrow. I also didn't want your little orange haired friend running away."

"What makes you think he won't run away even though you have me?"

"According to the my members that you fought, you were very adamant about getting that boy away from the fight. You haven't caught feelings for the boy have you."

Jaehyun shied away from the conversation. He didn't owe this guy nothing and he wasn't about to gush out about his feelings for Doyoung. "Of course not." Jaehyun bit his bottom lip and looked away. He hated denying it he didn't like the way it felt to say those words. He didn't like lying and he really didn't like lying about Doyoung.

Suho just side eyed him. "Liar." He snorted and Jaehyun was about to retaliate but he stopped him. "Get on boy." He shoved Jaehyun towards D.O 's bike.

“Nice bike.”

D.O said absolutely nothing to that but flashed the gun he looped in his belt. “You know what this means?” 

Jaehyun nodded. “No funny business, got it.”

Before Suho got on his bike he walked over to Jaehyun and tied a blindfold over his eyes. “Wouldn’t want you finding out where I get my poetry inspiration.”

“You write poetry?”

“Yup.”

“What inspires you?”

“Killing.”

“Okay!” Jaehyun decides to ask no further questions.


	9. Leaders Face to Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> K so we're a little disorganized with our bikes at the moment. Johnny gets phone sassed by Hae. Taeyong is no longer surprised by anything. Jaehyun meets dog. Taeyong makes a wild bet with a guy who writes poetry. Doyoung cries. Again.

It took Johnny a while before he could manage to get Doyoung back onto his feet. But he made it work. As he predicted his manager arrived shortly after and relieved him of his shift. Johnny escorted Doyoung outside. 

“Hmm.” Johnny scratched the back of his head in thought. “I forgot, my bike only has one seat. You also mentioned you don't have your bike. This wouldn’t really be a problem because we can walk to Ten’s and Hae’s but the ride to Taeyong’s is much longer. Can we take Jaehyun’s? Do you have it at the shop?”

Doyoung slumped. “Nope some asshole took the front tire during the whole fiasco.” 

“Well I guess it’d be too much to bring my bike down and take my tire off as a replacement. We could call Ten and hope he picks up because he’s got the other double seated bike.”

“Let’s give it a shot.” Doyoung begins praying in the back of his mind that the Thai boy would still be awake.

Johnny digs in his pocket for his cell phone and dials out the number. “Looks like this phone is useful for more than just work.” He rests the device against his ear and waits. For both boys it feels like an eternity. Doyoung takes the moment to notice the night's shift in temperature, it's definitely cooler. 

The humming of the phone stops. 

Doyoung looks up with his eyes wide hoping that Ten has answered but instead he is meet with Johnny who has completely stilled. In a split second Johnny has brought the phone away from his ear and slammed his thumb down on the end call button. Doyoung starts to question but is caught off.

“I’m going to try Haechan.”

Okay then, Doyoung forgets his question and lets Johnny carry on. He brings his eyes back to the ground and this time when the humming stops and he looks up Johnny looks content.

“Ah Haechannie!” An audible groan is heard on the other end of the line. “Ay! Don’t sass me boy.” Doyoung laughs thinking of the youngest swearing at Johnny from being woken up. “Something came up tonight. I’m gonna need you to get Ten and bring yourselves to my work. Yeah like right now. Wait what?” Johnny’s brows furrow in confusion. “Ten is with you? Like right now?...Okay...Yeah I’ll see you guys soon.” Johnny presses end and slips his cell back into his pocket. 

“Were they having a sleepover or some shit?” Doyoung asked after tuning in on the majority of the conversation.

“I guess, he didn’t say anything else other than that Ten was there. Weird but it’s whatever I guess.” Johnny looked away from Doyoung hiding his face.

If Johnny was showing any emotion other than nonchalance he couldn’t see. So he let any thoughts about the two phone calls go.

Haechan and Ten arrived fifteen minutes later. Johnny mentioned that everything would be explained once they got to Taeyong’s. Haechan mumbled something about everything always being a mystery. Ten told him to shut up.

“Who’s riding what or with whom?” Johnny asked.

“Johnny hyung why don’t you ride with Ten!” Haechan suggested. Ten, who was sitting on his bike, whipped his head back to Haechan and gave a face that literally screamed ‘what are you doing!’ Haechan only smiled and felt a sense of accomplishment when Johnny said okay. He knew the other two were forcefully keeping space between each other around everyone. Haechan respected Ten and Johnny’s wishes to do so but they were always so god damn stiff. They deserved small moments like these. Although at the moment Ten may be hating his guts, he’ll come around to thank him later.

Doyoung mounted Johnny’s bike while Johnny plopped himself onto Ten’s.

Ten gave a small shiver when Johnny wrapped his arms around his waist. While they’ve done many more intimate things behind closed doors Ten had yet to experience the small displays of affection couples would reserve for public. Things like holding hands walking down the street, sitting on benches in the park together, dinner or lunch dates and more importantly bike rides together. As all these thoughts came to mind Ten realized this was the unbelievable first time that Johnny and him rode on the same bike together, as a couple, and he felt so excited. He thinks he'll have to thank the younger brat this time.

Doyoung and Haechan already pulled out onto the main road and began heading out. So Johnny took the liberty of snuggling tightly into Ten. Ten let out a breathy laugh.

“You’re thinking the same thing, aren’t you?” Johnny whispers in Ten’s ear.

“Yeah, if you’re thinking that we never do fluffy shit like this.” Ten replies.

Johnny pushes forward more and plants a small kiss on Ten’s cheek. “I could get use to this... like being more open.”

“Yeah.” Ten says quickly. “Yeah we can, we could, I mean maybe, let’s talk about this later.” Ten smiles and receives another kiss to the cheek from his boyfriend.

“Agreed.” Johnny says.

~~

Jaehyun had an extremely uneventful ride back to wherever EXO crew chills. The blindfold really sucked, he saw exactly what he was meant to see. Nothing. As for speed even these assholes seemed to keep the limit in mind and all around D.O was a good driver. Total bike ride score a solid 5/10 because the seat was comfortable and the breeze felt nice.

Suho had guided Jaehyun off the bike and in past a couple doors before taking the blindfold of his face. 

“Alrighty here we are.”

Jaehyun eyed around the room he was standing in. It was quite large and there were a couple couches and coffee tables. A book shelf in the corner presumably poetry but he wasn’t about to ask. There was a ping pong table and while that was interesting he was a little more concerned that he wasn’t faced with being tied up in a jail or something.

“No dungeon?”

“We’re not fucking slave owners kid.” Suho pointed to array of seating then removed the cuffs Jaehyun still had on. “Just find a spot and sit still until morning."

Jaehyun shrugged and plopped himself down onto a couch that was up against one of the walls and wasn’t currently occupied by anyone. 

“Okay guys listen up.” Suho gained the attention of the crew members who were aimlessly wandering around the common room. Once they all looked up he began. “That boy over there is. Wait what’s your name?”

“Oh...uh Jaehyun.”

“Right. That boy over there is Jaehyun and his friend is the asshole that stole from us. He’s staying here tonight so he can bring us over to there club house in the morning. So first rule, do not kill him. Not even in the name of art. Second rule...I don’t really have a second rule... maybe just I don’t know keep an eye on him.” 

Everyone in the room just kinda nods at either Jaehyun or Suho.

Suho claps his hands together. “Awesome, cool, I’m gonna go do something that involves me not being here.” Suho leaves and everyone just goes back to doing their own thing.

Jaehyun rubs his tired eyes. It’s been a damn long day and not once did he think he’d end up here. He puts his hands down and takes another look around the room. No one is paying attention to him which is fantastic. Obviously they don't care enough to hate on him for being the friend of the guy who got them in shit. Most people would stray from a leader's words to pound the shit out of someone but it seemed the crew was sensible enough to know to wait. So he takes the time to think. While it’s been a long day it’s been and even longer week. He thinks about a lot of things and just as he's about to think about Doyoung he is interrupted by a wet roughness against his hand.

“What the fu—” Jaehyun looks down and sees and extremely white and curly dog looking back up at him. He swallows nervously. The dog has a really fucking terrifying glare. He feels like he’s being judged inside and out. The dog looks away hearing the call of its name.

“Vivi-ah! Vivi!” A tall and slightly lanky boy calls from the other side of the room. He begins walking over since the dog is too stubborn to move. “Vivi we talked about this. Strangers don’t want to be criticised by you.” The dog doesn’t do anything but glare at the boy. 

Jaehyun really cannot believe what is happening right now and he’s just honestly so done at this point to care. He reaches out and pets the dog.

“Oho I would not do that. Sehunnie might get jealous if Vivi starts acting friendly around you.” D.O looks at Jaehyun from over his book that he had his face stuffed. (He had been sitting on the couch across from him.)

“D.O hyung I am not like that!” Sehun whines. “I know Vivi loves me!”

“Sehun, that dog loves everybody but you.”

Sehun pouts.

Jaehyun looks at the dog that’s glaring at Sehun and then at D.O. Jaehyun assumes the dog is fed up with life in here and mumbles. “You and me both man, you and me both.”

~~

Taeyong was sitting on the couch with Yuta’s head in his lap. He ran his fingers through the brunette’s hair. Yuta had fallen asleep a short while ago. Taeyong had quietly hummed him into slumber and now he himself was finding it easy to succumb to sleep. Everything had gotten a little better in life now that he had Yuta’s hand to hold. 

It annoys him to think back to the day when Yuta had confessed so much to him and how to this day the boy still has doubt that Taeyong loves and needs him just as much. With time Taeyong thinks, he will show Yuta that he deserves the whole world’s love. At the thought Taeyong smiles fondly and peers down at the sleeping Yuta. How cute he thinks.

What Taeyong was not expecting at this late of night was a knock at the door that startled both him and Yuta out of sleep. The knock echoed through Taeyong’s apartment and made Taeyong practically throw Yuta off his lap.

“Taeyong! Wake up!” It was Johnny’s voice coming from the other side of the door.

Yuta sat up and Taeyong swiftly left his couch and made his way to the door. “What Johnny, like jeez John—and Ten and Hae and Doyoung and oh my lord what happened now.”

Doyoung caught Taeyong’s gaze and the elder just sighed. “All of you, inside now.”

For the second time Doyoung found himself filled to the brim with guilt and anxiety. He spilled once again everything he had to tell. Everyone listened, too tired to ask questions.

“So in summary this Suho guy has Jaehyun, talked to you but refuses making a deal unless it’s me and wants to see me tomorrow.” Taeyong rubs his forehead.

“Yeah, essentially.” Doyoung looks at the floor. The guilt feels like its consuming him. He feels so damn claustrophobic. 

“Well there isn’t any sense in worrying right now, if they want a deal Jaehyun will be fine. I think everyone should just sleep.”

Everyone agreed. 

Taeyong shared his bed with Yuta. Johnny and Ten had the guest room and Doyoung and Haechan took the two couches. Haechan spared Doyoung the longer couch out of height consideration. It’s not like Doyoung was gonna sleep anyway. He hadn’t really been doing much of that. Regardless he thanked Haechan.

Yuta was out like a light as soon as he hit the mattress. Taeyong found it quite endearing that his boyfriend could literally pass out anywhere and anytime. A skill he could never master himself. He climbed into his bed and wrapped his arms around Yuta. He was stressed again about what tomorrow would bring but Yuta’s warmth helped him fall steady into dreams.

While Taeyong and Yuta had the whole couple sleeping arrangement figured out Johnny and Ten were a totally different story.

Johnny was already lying down with his back to the wall. Ten sat with his feet dangling off the edge of the bed. 

“Ten, aren’t you going to lay down?” 

Ten looked at Johnny with wide eyes. “Is it alright?”

“Of course you idiot. What are you thinking about?”

“I don’t know it’s just I don’t think I’ve ever slept in the same bed as you before. So I was just thinking about that.”

“Dude we’ve slept together before.”

“Johnny, I mean just sleeping, not for any other purposes.” Ten gave him a glare.

“Okay okay yeah you’re right. We’ve been doing things a little bit in reverse with this relationship haven’t we?”

“Yeah." Ten sighed. "The bike ride together. It was nice. I want to feel that feeling more. Do you?" 

"I do. I do so much. You have no idea how hard it is to stop myself from grabbing your hand or calling you late at night. I can't do those things because of the crew and your dad. It hurts so much. Even today when your dad picked up the phone I grew so nervous like he'd know who I was to you even if I just spoke.

“My dad is such an ass.” Ten covered his eyes with his hands. "I don't want it this way anymore. I want to at least tell the guys. Maybe then we can be a couple around them, Closest thing we'll get to being open in public about it right?"

Johnny sighed and looped his arm around Ten who was slumped over. Johnny pulled Ten to lay down beside him. They ended up face to face. "Yeah, I trust the guys with their mouths. They wouldn't spill a thing. Just look at Tae and Yuta they'd understand." Johnny rubbed Ten's cheek lovingly. "Let's just wait for this whole EXO thing to simmer down, yeah?"

Ten smiled. “Okay.” He moved into Johnny more. It felt nice to have Johnny’s arms tightly around him. Safe, warm and nothing like his home. Truthfully ever since he has known Johnny the older has always been his true home. Someone he can go back to and feel belonging. As long as he was with Johnny he was always at home.

~~

“Do you want to play ping pong?”

“Chanyeol did you just invite our hostage to play ping pong with you?”

“Well god damn D.O the dog is practically fucking him so he must be a decent guy.”

Jaehyun decided he was not going to become a prize winning poetry piece of Suho’s so he’ll keep playing it safe. 

“I’d love to.” 

~~

Doyoung was almost indefinitely going to vomit at some point today. He sat stiff as a board on the garage’s couch awaiting the other crew’s arrival.

Ten and Johnny stopped to pick up some tools and a spare tire from the garage before heading out to fix Jaehyun’s bike that was left at the restaurant.

This left Taeyong, Yuta and Haechan. Taeyong was pacing back and forth. Haechan was playing on his gameboy while Yuta would look over and ask if he caught a Pikachu every five minutes. The answer was always ‘No.’ 

After a bit more of waiting the sound of bike engines could be heard. Doyoung turned to look out their open garage door to see Suho and D.O pull up and park. Jaehyun was sitting on the back of D.O’s bike when he met Doyoung’s gaze. 

Jaehyun motioned that he was going to run to Doyoung but Suho halted him in his tracks. 

“Ah-ah-ahh not so fast kiddo. Where’s your head master.”

“That’d be me.” Taeyong stepped out of the garage running a hand through his locks pushing them out of his eyes. 

Suho removed the hand he had put out to stop Jaehyun and the younger ran. He hopped over the couch and threw himself onto Doyoung. He had his hands around Doyoung’s waist pinning the elder down to the couch.

Doyoung through his arm across his face and cursed at himself. He hid his tears and muffled his sobs as Jaehyun dug his face into his chest.

“How touching.” Suho saw most of the scene but found more interest in the man standing in front of him. “Orange haired kid over there probably filled you in on most but he doesn’t know the deal. Also I’m Suho and thats’ D.O .” Suho extended a hand to shake. 

Taeyong shakes. “I’d be Taeyong. Let’s make this quick because it would be fucking fantastic if you and your pals would stop harassing my members. So shoot what you’ve got in mind.”

“Oh you and me both man, this harassing has gotten quite tiring.” Suho smiled baring his teeth. “I want a race.”

“What kind?”

“Bike, relay.”

“How many?”

“Five of your best versus five of mine.”

“What’s in it for the winner?”

“If you win, we will leave in peace, never step foot on your turf again, forget what your boy ever did.”

“Money.”

“Fine you’ll get a couple hundred won under the books.”

“Great.” Taeyong begins walking away.

“Hey! Where are you going.” Suho calls out in pure confusion. “Dude I didn’t tell you what we’re getting if we win.”

“Don’t need to hear.” Taeyong continues walking with his back to him. “You’re not fucking wining shit.”

Taeyong rests his back against the metal of the garage turning back to face Suho. Arms crossed and gaze cold. 

“Two days Taeyong, race begins here, through the country to the downtown and back. I’ll have one of my boys send a mapped outline.”

Taeyong nodded as he watched Suho get on his bike. Suho brought a finger up and pointed a finger to Taeyong’s parked bike before making a snapping gesture with his hands. He then pointed directly at Taeyong, making it into a finger gun before fake shooting at him. He smiled mischievously. Then Suho and D.O were gone.

Taeyong wasn’t an idiot he knew that losing this race would come at a price. It was gonna be broken bikes or death but this time it seems like it’d be both. Wonderful.

~~

Doyoung could hear that the other crew had finally left. He scrambled to get Jaehyun off him. He dashed out of the garage and ran as far as he could before he fell onto his hands and knees and threw up. It wasn’t a lot but enough that it made his back sore from heaving. 

Jaehyun came up and knelt beside him. “Bunny, its okay Bunny.” He rubbed his back gently. “I promise they didn’t do anything bad to me its okay. I only had to sit with a judgmental dog and play ping pong with them. I’m okay I promise.” 

Doyoung wiped away the tears that came from throwing up. “I’m sorry Jae. I just want this to end. I’m so sorry.”

“Doyoung stop. Stop apologizing because your heart was in the right place. Stop apologizing for having good intentions. Stop apologizing for having shit luck. Just stop.”

Doyoung wanted to apologize again but he settled for silence finding no other words to substitute in.

Jaehyun pulled Doyoung away from the mess and made it so they were sitting face to face. He put his hands on Doyoung’s shoulders. “Doyoung I’m tired but I’m not angry. I could never be. Do you want to know why?”

Doyoung motioned for Jaehyun to continue.

Jaehyun took a deep breath. “It’s because... because...ah fuck I love you Doyoung. No not in a friend kinda way in I love love you kinda way.” Jaehyun’s face was all shades of pinks and reds and so was Doyoung’s. For a dense guy on love Doyoung seemed to clearly understand Jaehyun’s words. 

Jaehyun expected Doyoung to run away, hit him or throw up more but he didn’t. He stayed still keeping Jaehyun’s hands on his shoulders. Jaehyun’s heart was hammering in his chest and today he found he really didn’t like the feeling that it came with. As the silence between them grew so did the pain.

“Me too.”

“What?”

“Me too!”

“What does that mean!”

“Fuck!” Doyoung sobbed. “ I like you too!”

Jaehyun leaned back. “What the fuck! You do?”

“Stop asking!”

“Okay!”

“This was a shitty way to confess, how gross and unromantic. Why couldn’t you’ve done this shit up on the rocks under the stars?”

“You fell asleep!”

Doyoung and Jaehyun both groaned.

Jaehyun looked at Doyoung, his intensity caused the other to stare back. Bringing his hands that were still on the elder’s shoulders he brought them up to Doyoung’s cheeks. He pulled Doyoung’s face closer to his.

“Jae I have a feeling where this is going and I just want to remind you of my vomit.”

“Doyoung I just played about twenty five matches of ping pong because no one could beat me, almost became a psychotic mans Shakespearian poetic masterpiece and got dry humped by a dog for you. The only thing that bothers me about you throwing up is that you’ve wasted your mom’s wonderful cooking. 

With that all out Jaehyun closed his eyes and smashed Doyoung’s and his mouth together. Doyoung was quick to close his eyes and reciprocate. All of it was slow and hesitant movements with lips firm against one another’s. A killer first kiss. 

Jaehyun was the first to pull them apart. He looked Doyoung’s face up and down. Doyoung’s lips were red and coated in a thin layer of saliva. His cheeks had lost the red from embarrassment and were now dipped in a lustful pink. Jaehyun giggled at the sight.

“What’s so funny?” Doyoung frowned.

“I just love you so much.” Jaehyun replied still full of giggles and smiles.

Doyoung covered his mouth with his hand looking at the rocky ground. “I love you too.”


	10. Scratch Ten, Write Haechan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johnny and Ten increase that fluff guys. Haechan loses his shit. Shit gets fucked up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *WARNING* I would just like to state for readers who are sensitive to minors being involved in violence that Haechan is gonna get caught up in a bit of a scruff. I will place "***" these before it starts and when the violence ends.

“Jesus Fuck.” Haechan muttered walking into the garage. He couldn’t catch a break. This time he stumbled upon Doyoung and Jaehyun sucking face. At first he went to see if Doyoung was alright after his abrupt departure from the garage. Turns out he’s more than ‘okay!’ Haechan was a little grossed out but generally excited for them. He was after all their biggest secret fan. But don’t tell Ten that.

“Hey you look like you’ve seen a ghost kid.” Yuta spoke up from the couch he now laid claim to with his whole body.

“Yeah, move over it’s been a long week.”

~~

Ten’s wishes were fulfilled once again when he and Johnny got the opportunity to ride together on their way to fix Jae’s bike. He relished every second that he had Johnny’s long arms steadily wrapped around his small build. The heat from Johnny’s chest pressed up against his back seared its way to his heart. It was a feeling he knew he’d never get use to.

“God damn they really did take the tire with them.” Johnny looked dumbfounded at Jaehyun’s bike. “Like who has that much energy to be that much of an asshole.”

“EXO.”

“Well no shit.”

Ten shrugged his shoulders. “You asked man, I answered.”

Johnny hummed and pinched Ten’s cheek. “So smug, aren’t you? I’d love to wipe that smirk off your face.” Johnny’s eyes darkened.

“Maybe later Mr. Repair Man. Right now we have shit to fix! Now pass me the tools.”

Johnny pouted and reluctantly fetched the tool bag hitched to the side of Ten’s bike. While Ten was inspecting Jae’s bike Johnny took a small peek into the bag. It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for. A packet of cigarettes and a lighter. They were tucked away in a hidden zippered pocket inside the bag.

Making sure Ten wasn’t looking, Johnny took the lighter and a single cigarette and lit it up. He re-tucked the packet and light away before gently placing the stick in his mouth. He hated smoking with a passion but after these fucking long ass days something in his body said he needed it. 

Ten was not impressed when he turned around to find Johnny smoking his secret stash. Personally he had no clue if he was more offended by the snooping or the hypocritical aspect of this scenario. He didn’t get to say anything regardless since Johnny got up and plucked the cigarette from his mouth and put it in Ten’s.

“What the hell.” Ten mumbled with the piece dangling from his lips.

“It’s not good to go cold.” Johnny brushed back a piece of Ten’s hair.

“How could you tell?”

“You have the steadiest hands in the world. Lately, not so much.”

Ten looked down. He felt a little ashamed that he made Johnny worry about him. At the same time he was grateful that Johnny was concerned about his health. Ever since Johnny went off on him smoking so much he tried his best to quite. He sunk down to the ground and rested his back against the restaurant wall. He took a drag and then pulled it from his mouth offering it back to Johnny.

Johnny waved him off. “Not a fan.”

Ten raised a brow.

“I just wanted to piss you off.”

“Asshole.”

Johnny sat down next to Ten. Before the younger could bring the cigarette back to his mouth he captured his lips with his own. “This is gonna sound bad but I may have missed the taste of them. On your lips that is.” Johnny couldn’t hide his embarrassment from his statement. His cheeks dusted in a rare pink and he turned his head away from Ten.

Ten pulled Johnny’s chin towards him so they were face to face. He stifled a laugh when he saw Johnny’s cheeks. “You cheesy fuck.”

Johnny thought they needed to work on the fluff in their relationship. He shouldn’t really consider smoking to be cheesy. But here he is not really giving a fuck. Oh well.

Ten and Johnny work well together. They cooperation and smoothness is reflected in the bikes they fix. In no time the simplicity of placing a new tire on the bike was complete. 

With their work done the boy’s concluded that Johnny would ride Jae’s bike back to the garage while Ten would take his own. Ten felt a tightness in his chest that he could only describe as the feeling of need. He really didn’t want his and Johnny’s time together to end so quickly. 

Strangely it was like the Gods had heard Ten’s heart crying out for help. Doyoung’s father had come to place some trash at the back of the restaurant. In order for the man to get back there he’d have to walk through the alley. So on his trip to the back he ended up face to face with Ten and Johnny.

“Oh boys!” Doyoung’s father gave them a wide grin. “It’s been a while. What brings you to the alley?” He gave a light chuckle to take the potential seriousness away from the question.

Johnny and Ten both greeted him and kindly bowed before Ten explained.

“Well sir it seems Jaehyun caught a flat so we were just replacing the tire for him. He got caught up at the garage so he couldn’t come with us.”

“Ah I see... but for your hard work boys and as friends of Doyoung and Jaehyun please come in and eat. It’s on us. We’ve certainly missed your company.”

Ten and Johnny knew it would be more than disrespectful to turn the kind offer down so they agreed, repeatedly giving thanks.

The Gods were one hundred percent on Ten’s side because he and Johnny were seated in the small hidden booth off to the side. He was calm on the outside but on the inside he was literally screaming “IS THIS A DATE, YES I THINK? HOLY SHIT I’M ON A DATE WITH JOHNNY!! WOW!!!”

Johnny might look like an oblivious guy but he knew exactly what Ten was thinking and he thought it was the cutest shit in the world. Now that Ten was in this position he was going to tease the fuck out of him. Plan: Johnny actually has a soft side begin!

What eventually ensued was a disgusting amount of fluff. Johnny tried feeding Ten with his chopsticks. He missed his mouth twice. There was an endless amount of giggles and playful kicks at each other under the table. It was a mess of happy and care freeness. 

They gave their thanks to Doyoung’s parents and begrudgingly they ended their surprise date. They had a job to do and the guys would expect them to be back soon. 

Once back in the alley Ten perched up on his tip toes and managed to pull Johnny the rest of the ways down to his lips. Just one more kiss he thought. Then the day would be perfect. It was their first kiss in “public.” Neither felt shame or regret.

If Johnny were to be honest he would say he had never felt as good as he did when he spent time with Ten today. Ten would say the exact same thing. 

~~

“We’re discussing positions for the race so come and sit.” Taeyong directed Johnny and Ten over to the couch when they arrived.

Haechan had one end and had his legs thrown over Yuta who was beside him. He got the Japanese boy playing on his gameboy and the elder refused to give it up. Haechan couldn’t really argue with the other because of seniority so he just let it be.

Doyoung and Jaehyun were at the other end. Jaehyun had his elbow propped up on the couch arm and Doyoung was resting his head on his shoulder. 

Ten and Johnny sat on the floor in front of the couch. Taeyong was on the coffee table that he pushed back so he could speak to them comfortably. 

“Ok so let’s just get straight to it. We need five racers. I’m gonna be brutally honest with who is and who isn’t racing. I’ve thought this over carefully. The two people that won’t be racing are Jaehyun, Haechan.

“Alright I understand Jaehyun.”

“Hey!—”

“But Taeyong hyung I want to race so bad why can’t I.” Haechan whined.

“Kid there is no way I’m placing your life in this death trap. Just listen to your hyungs.” Taeyong gave Hae his famous glare. 

Haechan pouted knowing full well it would be futile to fight back. He fought back anyway. “Fuck! Ever since it happened all you do is shove me in a cage for protection. I’m not Mark; that was one fucking time!” Haechan swings his legs off Yuta and storms out.

Taeyong stood still in shock at the youngest. Those were a strong choice of words and Taeyong felt the bitter truth within them. 

Ten came up from behind and patted Taeyong on the back. “Hyung I think we’re all on edge. Let’s not take his words to heart right now. We’ll wait for him to comeback. Help Johnny and I with the bikes for now, yeah?” 

Taeyong nodded solemnly in response. 

~~

Haechan knew that his actions and words were completely ridiculous. The moment he stormed out he wished he’d have just walked right back in. It was his own shame that he’d have to apologize that kept him walking forward. 

Thinking about it he couldn’t really believe he had something so bad. How he could throw Mark under the bus like that. Sure Mark may be a reason for his hyung’s to protect him but they’ve always been his security. It was a shit excuse to blame Mark. 

When Haechan had run off he took his bike. He was barreling down the highway, sun almost ready to set. He didn’t initially pick a place to head to because of his jumbled thoughts. Now that he had calmed down he could only think of one place he wanted to be.

Hospital visiting hours were almost over but he made it in time that he’d have an hour to spend on site.

“Hyung?” Haechan knocked on the open door.

“Hae?”

“Yeah it’s me.” Haechan walked around the semi drawn curtain. “Hi.” He flashed a smile that read sadness all over it.

“Donghyuck? What’s wrong?” Mark sat up more.

Haechan flinched at his real name. It sounded foreign to his ears but familiar to his heart. He crawled into Mark’s bed and wrapped his arms around the other’s waist and cried.

At first he didn’t want to be loud so he stifled everything willing its way out of his mouth. When Mark placed a hand through his hair and held him he completely let himself go. They stayed like that for a long while until Haechan could speak once again.

“Ahhh I’m not a fan of races.” Mark laughed. “I’m sure you know that very well though.” 

“Yeah.” Haechan knew his hyung wouldn’t be too excited about the information he had to share. Leaving Mark out of the loop would be really rude though. 

“Hyung, if I may ask, but who did you race against that made you like this. I’ve always been afraid to ask the other hyungs.”

Mark looked out his room’s window then back at Haechan. “How come you don’t know already?”

“I was gone that whole month it happened. I went with my dad on his business trip. When I came back the only thing I was told was that you were in the hospital. A race gone wrong. That was all.”

“Honestly our hyungs are silly. They try and keep everything from us but in the end it really isn’t worth it. They shouldn’t always burden themselves like this. Complete idiots.” Mark and Haechan both laughed at the thought. “I guess I should tell you though. So two summers ago there was a mix and match bike race. Anybody from any group could join in and then they’d split us into two groups.”

“So it was a relay?”

“Yes, I actually convinced Taeyong to let me join in with him when Yuta turned the offer down. He really didn’t want me to but he eventually succumbed to all my bitching. Taeyong’s part of the relay had him paired up with some guy from a group out of the city. Funny thing is there was a mix up. I was originally supposed to be paired with Taeyong’s partner. Taeyong was supposed to go with the guy who clipped my bike and threw me off.”

“Must be why he never wanted to talk about.” Haechan drifted into though over the many times Taeyong would change the subject to avoid the topic.

“Seems so... anyway the guy I raced against wasn’t in a group at the time but now he’s in one. I’m pretty sure it’s just Taeyong hyung who remembers him by face as well. I don’t want to be a revengeful person but if you could do me a favour and make sure you guys win this next race it would make me sleep easier at night.”

Haechan missed half of what Mark had said since he zoned out but he caught the part about them winning would make Mark happy. “Yeah we’ll do our best hyung!”

~~

Visiting hours closed and Haechan was practically kicked out of Mark’s room by the nurses. He really didn’t want to leave. 

Making his way through the parking lot to his motorcycle he decided he wasn’t fully ready to go back to the garage. He just couldn’t face his consequences. Even though Mark had reassured him tonight that his feelings were valid he still felt gravely guilty about what he had said. After all his hyungs have done for him, they certainly did not deserve this. 

He pondered and pondered sitting on his bike before he decided he’d just go sit in the park. It was a short ride from the hospital and there was a direct route back to the garage from it as well. He wasn’t going to make Taeyong and the others worry forever so he’d try his best to collect the rest of his thoughts.

The night’s breeze felt really nice and because of the mass reduction of vehicle pollution the stars were somewhat visible from the centre of the city. Haechan wanted to sit there forever. Glue his back to the bench and look above at the barely visible constellations. He couldn’t feel a single worry in the world.

He eventually believed he had collected himself enough that he felt like he could return back to his group’s home. That was until there was a hand snaking around his face and clamping down on his mouth. Before he had time to consider his dilemma he was pulled from under his arms over the backrest of the bench. All his screams were muffled and he began lashing out. It was no use, whoever had him had an iron clad grip on him.

“Shut up kid!” 

***

Haechan flinched away from the harsh whisper in his ear. He was being pulled away into a darker area of the park. The small streetlight that illuminated his previous seat started to recede from his vision. He kept squirming which he’d later come to regret because it obviously ticked off the guy who had him bound. Next thing he knew his body was thrown up against a tree, the recoil had his head smack against the wood forcefully. He began to see many more stars than the night sky had to offer. 

“Fuck.” It was more of a whimper of distress than a cuss word thrown at the opponent. His hands were pinned above his head against the rough bark. It scratched the back of his hands raw.

***

“Listen this could have been a lot simpler if you stayed still. Our wise ass of a leader sent us to deliver this to your leader.” 

Haechan looked over the man’s shoulder to see a much slender figure. The slender man held a coloured map.

“But this wise ass leader of ours didn’t give us directions to your base. We did see you and we do know that you’re affiliated with Taeyong. So we ask you kindly to bring us over to him.”

Haechan’s vision was coming back clearer now. The man who had him pinned had fiery red hair. It almost put Doyoung’s windbreaker to shame. The slender man who had moved closer had a name stitched on his jacket that read ‘Sehun.’ 

The red haired man slowly freed his hands and Haechan reclaimed them. He brought his thumb up to his bloody noise and wiped away the red substance. He felt dizzy, his posture remained straight as not to give off weakness. “I’ll lead the way.”

As Haechan stumbled over to his bike he felt a light grip on his shoulder. He peered up to see the guy named Sehun looking down at him.

“Send your friend my regards kid; it’s been a while since I’ve seen him.”

Haechan had no fucking clue what that meant at the moment but it sent billions of chills trickling down his spine.

~~

“How dare you fucking touch Hae!” Ten struggled against Johnny’s grip. Every muscle in his body yearned to slam the EXO members back into the hell in which they came from.

“You should let him go, that’s enough Chanyeol.” Sehun called to older.

Chanyeol threw Haechan forward; luckily Doyoung was there to steady him from falling. Haechan slumped into his elder’s arms. His eyes shut tightly in panic.

That was all it took for Ten to completely snap. He ripped himself from Johnny’s hold and lunged towards the redhead. His fist connected with jaw and the taller stumbled back. His second throw was cut short. Sehun grabbed his wrist while Chanyeol gathered himself and pushed Ten to the floor. He then took a hard stomp to Ten’s wrist digging his boot heel in. Ten cried out. Tears pricked from his eyes.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” Johnny rushed forward but was halted abruptly.

“ENOUGH!” Taeyong screamed. “GIVE ME THE GOD DAMN FUCKING MAP. THEN FUCKING LEAVE OR I SWEAR TO GOD.”

No one moved. It was unexpected from someone so normally calm and collected.

Sehun reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the folded map. He placed it neatly into Taeyong’s hand. “See you in a day.” He then turned gracefully and looped his arm around Chanyeol’s pulling him out of the garage. They departed from there.

Haechan was a mess in Doyoung’s arms. His face dampened in a salty stream of tears and thick dry blood on his upper lip. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He mumbled his apology over and over again through sobs. 

Taeyong knelt down beside Doyoung and pushed some of the hair out of Haechan’s face. 

When Haechan saw Tae he began crying harder. All of his guilt falling heavily from his eyes. “I’m sorry Tae hyung, I was so mean I’m sorry.” 

Taeyong felt just as guilty. Haechan who has been like his little brother his whole life was hurt so badly and all he was doing was apologizing. It reminded him so much of Mark and he couldn’t keep himself from crying. “It’s okay Hae, I’m sorry to. I’m sorry I let you get hurt like this. I should have been a better hyung and followed you when you left. I’m so sorry.” He covered his eyes in shame. 

While Taeyong and Doyoung were focused on Haechan; Yuta and Jaehyun were looking over Ten.

Ten was folded up into Johnny’s embrace. His face was hidden in the crook of the elder’s neck trying desperately to hide his tears. He clutched his right wrist with his left hand and held it close to his stomach. 

“Shhh it’ll be alright. You’ll be okay.” Johnny whispered in Ten’s ear. Ten whimpered in response. Johnny’s heart felt the pain of Ten’s wrist. It was terrifying to see Ten cry. He hadn’t in a long, long while. He felt so useless. He was so unsure of what to do. All he could offer was his shoulder right now and a place to stay. A hospital was out of the question. Too expensive. They already knew firsthand about the bills with Mark’s case. “Comeback to my place, yeah?” Johnny whispered again. This is all he could do.

Ten moved his head up and down. 

“I’ll get him taken care of. His wrist isn’t looking good though.” Johnny picked Ten up into his arms. The younger kept his face tucked away and looped his arms and legs around Johnny. “I think you’re going to have to reconsider some things Taeyong.”

Taeyong replied with a quiet ‘I think so’ and Johnny carried Ten out of the garage.

“Hyung Jae and I will take Hae home with us tonight. We’ll take care of him, it seems like maybe a concussion and a couple deep scrapes at the most. Nothing Jae and I can’t clean up.” 

Jaehyun kneeled down and scooped Haechan, who had passed out from crying and exhaustion, up out of Doyoung’s arms. He held him bridal style and Doyoung made sure his head was rested against Jaehyun’s shoulder.

“Okay, that’s good. Just get some rest guys.”

“Will do!” The three departed.

Taeyong wiped the dryness from his eyes that came after crying. Yuta rested against Tae chest to chest. Taeyong rested his chin on the top of Yuta’s head letting out a long sigh. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do. I don’t know what the fuck just happened.”

“Hyung, let’s just get some rest too, okay.” Yuta rubbed his back. His voice filled with a thick Japanese accent that usually came around when he was tired.

“Okay. Just one more thing. Will you grab that list of which members are racing.”

Yuta obliged, leaving Taeyong’s embrace, he pulled the sheet off the coffee table. “What do you want to do with it?”

“What I never want to do. Scratch Ten’s name and write Haechan’s.”

~~

Doyoung picked Haechan up off of the back of Jaehyun’s bike and carried him up the stairs to his window. Jaehyun lead the way and opened it.

Doyoung placed Haechan down gently on his bed. He would just share Jae’s bed for the night. No big deal, it’s not like they just revealed they loved each other or anything. But this wasn’t the moement to think about that. Doyoung removed the thought quickly and brought his attention back to Hae. “Get me a damp cloth will ya Jaehyun.”

“Sure thing bunny.”

Doyoung wiped away the blood and tear stains from Haechan’s face. He pulled the hoodie off the youngest and he and Jaehyun tucked him under the covers. He mentally reminded himself to call Haechan’s house in the morning in case one of parents was home now. He’d let them know he was just sleeping over for the night.

Jaehyun left to use the washroom and came back in only his boxers. Doyoung usually wouldn’t have a problem with this but one, they confessed, and two, they were sharing a bed. Jaehyun strolled over and placed his hands on Doyoung’s hips before slipping words into his ear. “Are you going to join me bunny.”

The blush on Doyoung’s face was easily worth a billion dollars to Jaehyun. He felt he could certainly get used to teasing his hyung.

Doyoung pushed Jaehyun down onto the mattress in anger. He hated being teased but what he hated more was Jaehyun pulling him down with him. Lying on top of Jaehyun’s chest Doyoung thought he was literally going to die from the warmth.

“At least take your jeans off bunny. The last time you slept with them you had a maze full of imprints all over your legs.”

“Jaeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!” Doyoung hid his face in the other’s chest in embarrassment.

“Bunnnnyyyyy!!!!!!”

“Fineeee!!!!” Doyoung rolled off the bed and took his jeans off. He was left in his boxers and t-shirt. “Better Jae?”

Jaehyun giggled before pulling Doyoung down once again. “Better.”

Aware that Haechan was still in the room Jaehyun only stole a small chaste goodnight kiss from Doyoung. They cuddled up against each other; Doyoung fell asleep to the sound of Jae’s heart. Jaehyun was lulled by Doyoung’s soft snores.


	11. Ready? Set? Tomorrow We Go?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johnny and Ten deserve each other. Don't worry they're working on figuring that out. Haechan is surprisingly alright. He's a tough cookie. The race is approaching. (I'm lazy to start it.)

“Ow AH AH OWW....EEEEEEEE!!!!!” Ten squirmed helplessly as Johnny placed ice against his wrist. They were sitting on Johnny’s couch in the elder’s apartment.

“This is really fucking useless. Like I’m dead positive ice isn’t gonna fix shit but it may numb the pain.” Johnny lessened the pressure and Ten hissed with relief.

“The hospital is too expensive anyway. I dunno looks like I’ll have to wait it out a bit.” The younger sighed. “Although I don’t think that’s very good to do.”

Johnny reached up to brush away a few tears that had dribbled from Ten’s eyes. “I’m sorry I can’t afford it right now. I promise I’ll get extra shifts. My manager doesn’t hate me so it’ll be easy. Then we’ll get it fixed properly.”

Ten closed his eyes leaning into Johnny’s hand. “Don’t be sorry. Shit happens. We’re okay. I’m okay. For now we will be just fine.”

Ten waited for a response but all that resonated was silence. He opened his eyes and peered up at his boyfriend’s face. His eyes were glazed over and he was frantically looking elsewhere. “Johnny? What’s wrong?” 

Johnny brought his eyes back to Ten’s and bit his bottom lip. He attempted to hold back his tears but it was too late. One slipped out and another followed.

Johnny was crying and it was really fucking weird. Ten was confused as hell. Firstly, neither of them cried. So it was awkward for both parts. Secondly, they had no clue what to do.

“Johnny you’re freaking me out. Why are you crying?” Ten grabbed Johnny’s hand with his free one. The elder looked down at their hands, hiding his face.

“Are we really okay? Is everything going to be okay?” Johnny whispered.

“Yeah...yeah we’re gonna be okay.” Ten whispered back. “Look at me Johnny.” Johnny raised his face and looked at the soft features of the younger. “What’s really on your mind?”

“Ten, am I good enough. Am I good enough for you?” Johnny sobbed.

Ten was a little more than shocked. Slowly he took the ice off his wrist and placed it on the floor. He brought his arms up and around Johnny’s neck and brought his and Johnny’s foreheads together. “You are enough.”

They stayed like that for a while. 

“Johnny?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Their night involved soft kisses, tear drying and warm embraces. It ended with them asleep, cuddled together on the couch.

~~

Jaehyun woke up first. His sleep schedule has been a mess lately so he wasn’t surprised he woke early this morning. Lazily he carded a hand through Doyoung’s hair. 

Doyoung was still fast asleep. Pieces of his orange hair were spread everywhere, it was more of a mess after Jaehyun’s fingers graced it. 

Jaehyun didn’t necessarily want to get up but he believed it’d be better if he did, that way he could make something for the three of them to eat. He propped himself up on his elbow to glance at Haechan. The smaller boy was tucked tightly under the covers. You could only see his face from the eyes up. His brown hair was as much of a mess as Doyoung’s orange. 

Jaehyun giggled. He thought Haechan’s sleeping style was almost as cute as Doyoung’s. It probably was cuter than his bunny’s but to be honest he loves Doyoung and Doyoung always wins in his heart. 

Jae promises himself five more minutes to spend with Doyoung in the warmth of their shared bed. He relishes it for all it’s worth. He wraps an arm over Doyoung’s thin frame and burying his nose softly against his chest. 

Doyoung smells like the city. He smells like the restaurant. Like home. Doyoung has always been home for Jaehyun. In this moment Jaehyun almost completely loses his mind to the aroma. A quiet snore escaping from his lover’s mouth snaps him from his trance. Be grudgingly he motions to get off the bed.

Doyoung stirs and reaches an arm out to pull the younger by the torso back down to the mattress. “Don’t go.” He whispers.

Jaehyun giggles and brings a hand to Doyoung’s face to pinch his cheek. “Let me go make breakfast whiner.” He teases.

“Jae~” Doyoung purrs. “Staayy.” 

Jaehyun moves and captures Doyoung’s lips with his own. Their noses bump and there’s a flutter of eyelashes. Innocent and sweet. 

Jaehyun can feel Doyoung’s warm breath and his whole body heats up. He pulls back to restrict the possibility of going any further. So he takes the opportunity to instead see what he does to Doyoung. The latter’s cheeks are flushed and eyelids hooded. Jaehyun approves.

“You can go make it now.” Doyoung barely stutters out. He’s still a little dazed from the morning kiss.

“Of course, bunny.”

The restaurant doesn’t open for another two hours. Once it’s eight o’clock it’s open to the public. Jaehyun has all the time in the world to make eggs in his boxers without the fear of someone walking in on him. He won’t lie he’s a pretty decent cook and he’d make something better but it’s all they got to use that doesn’t go to feeding the customers.

Doyoung hops down the stairs when Jaehyun is just about done.

“Do you think we should wake Hae up?” Jae isn’t sure if the boy will be hungry or not.

“I’ll ask him if he wants something. If he doesn’t he can sleep more.” Doyoung turns on his heels and hops back up the stairs. He reaches his room and pops over to Haechan. He gently shakes the younger’s shoulder. “Hae, Hae do you want something to eat?”

Haechan groggily opens his eyes. “Hyung? What time is it?”

“It’s a little after six in the morning.”

“Damn that’s early.” Haechan rubs the sleep from his eyes. “But I’m hungry as fuck so I’ll take you up on that offer hyung.”

Doyoung gives him the second offer of a piggy back ride to the kitchen. This offer is accepted too.

The three boys cram into a booth and shovel down Jaehyun’s scrambled eggs. 

As they’re finishing up the phone on the wall just before the entrance to the kitchen rings. Doyoung rises to answer it.

“Hello! Oh Johnny! How’s Ten? Ah....okay I see...yeah he’s with us. For sure, I’ll let him know. Yikes this isn’t good. Tell Ten we hope it gets better. Alright see you tomorrow.”

“Is Ten hyung alright?” Haechan asked with the utmost look of concern on his face.

“No he’s busted his wrist bad. Johnny said he just finished talking to Taeyong.” Doyoung looked at Jaehyun and then back to the youngest. “Haechan you’re in the race.”

Haechan spit his drink out.

~~

“Yuta I—I don’t know if this is the right thing to do.” Taeyong paces back and forth in his apartment’s living room. Yuta is sitting calmly on the couch observing Taeyong’s storming actions.

“Tae there’s nothing we can do about it. If Johnny called and said Ten’s wrist is busted than that means there is no decision to make because Ten can’t race.”

“Fuck Yuta I know that it’s just we’re talking about putting Haechan into a fucking bike race against EXO. Like this isn’t something where we go ‘oh no shit happened but its okay we can have the sixteen year old ride a junkyard bike against murderers.’” 

Any other day Yuta would have been a smart ass back but today he’s tired, and he knows Taeyong is too. Neither really got any sleep last night. Taeyong was filled with too much guilt over Haechan and Yuta was too concerned over Taeyong.

“Yuta, I just, this reminds me of Mark all over again and—” Taeyong was cut off by Yuta’s abrupt hug.

“I think you need to chill. We haven’t had any sleep and Taeyong we can’t change this. We just have to go with the hand we were dealt. We also need to keep Mark in the past. No offence to Mark but that is also something we can’t change.”

“I just got dealt all the nines and tens in this game of Euchre. EXO has the matching bowers.”

Yuta hums. “You forgot your partner Taeyong. You might have a shit hand but we’ve got the other matching bowers and it’s our call for suit.”

Taeyong laughs. “I guess you’re right.” He tucks his head neatly against Yuta’s neck and presses light kisses. “What did I do to deserve you?”

“You played soccer with the foreign kid and taught him Korean. That’s what you did and in the end even if you just sat beside me and did nothing it would have been enough. You always did so much more for me. What did I do to deserve you?”

“You didn’t run away from me and you always just appreciated my company. It was all I wanted as a quiet kid. You made me feel like I didn’t have to fake a persona to make a friend. You let me be me.”

“Lee Taeyong you fucker.” Yuta brushed a tear from his eye. “I’m too tired for this shit right now.”

“Ah my prince shall we try and sleep then?” Taeyong asked as he picked Yuta up bridal style.

Yuta’s cheeks turned rosy. “I guess, my King.” 

They both laughed.

~~

The day went by in a blur. Jaehyun, Doyoung and Haechan opted to stay at the restaurant and chill. Since tomorrow they’d have to get up early again and prep their bikes for race. 

Haechan stayed quiet for the most part. He thought a lot throughout the day. He mostly though about how much he regretted wanting to be in the race. He was so nervous and wished Ten was well enough to keep his position. 

Doyoung was quick to notice the younger’s mood shift so when they went up to their room he sat on the bed with Haechan. He pulled the younger into a side hug and Haechan rested his head against Doyoung’s shoulder. 

“Try not to think about it too much okay?”

“Okay.” Haechan’s voice was faint. 

Doyoung felt pain for him. “You’ll be okay, your hyungs will protect you.”

On queue Jaehyun, who was laying on the opposite bed, rolled up his sleeve and flexed. “We got you kiddo!” He smacked his arm for emphasis.

Haechan smiled weakly. “Thanks guys.”

~~

Taeyong placed his pen down on the coffee table. “It’s done, wanna take a look Yuta?”

“Sure.” The Japanese boy reached out and took the paper from Taeyong’s hand. The paper read in descending order: Taeyong, Haechan, Yuta, Johnny and Doyoung.

“Looks fair, you easily have the best start and placing Doyoung at the end is smart.” 

Taeyong nodded confirming Yuta’s approval. “I wonder who we’ll be matched up against. I’d call Suho and ask but that guy gives me the creeps. So I guess we will find out tomorrow.”

“Guess so!”

~~

“Here, D.O show this to the guys.” Suho passed over a folded piece of paper to the latter. “It’s the race order.”

D.O stepped out of Suho’s office unfolding the paper in his hands. He stepped into the common room, seeing that all were there he continued. “Listen up guys.” He waved the paper above his head. “Racing order.” 

At those words all heads turned to face D.O. 

D.O brought the paper back down to reading level and spoke out the names in order. “Suho, Sehun, myself, Lay and Chen.” 

All whose names weren’t called groaned in frustration. 

~~

The sun settled quickly. All the fears the boys had desperately suppressed began to break out in the darkness. It would not be an easy night for any of them.


	12. Wave the Flag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's their last night before their uncertain future. Let's talk about the lights. Let's get philosophical. Heaven, Hell or The End. Connect the dots Haechan. The race starts.

“Hyung?”

 

“Mmm?” Doyoung hummed patting Haechan on the head lightly.

 

“Can I stay here again tonight?” The smaller looked up at Doyoung then back to his feet. “I-I don’t want to be...”

 

“Alone?”

 

“Yeah. I don’t want to be alone.”

 

Doyoung pulled the younger into a tight embrace. They were still in Doyoung’s room on his bed. They spent the whole day there after the phone call. The news had Haechan stiff as a board.

 

Jaehyun crawled over from the opposite bed and hugged Haechan from the opposite side. “Our little Haechannie will be okay.” He pressed a feathering kiss to the boy’s brown swirls of hair.

 

~~

 

Yuta and Taeyong were walking along the riverbank. It had gotten bitter these past few days. No wind, just a stale chill. Their hands clamped together replaced the bitterness with seeping warmth.

 

“Are you ready for this Tae?” Yuta swung their hands back and forth between them.

 

“When I look back at it all now, I really did have a lot of time to think about this. I’ve concluded that everything really was unavoidable and unfortunate. Although in light of all the dark events I’ve confessed and kissed you a thousand times. So really, I can’t hate the world right now. Whatever happens I’m ready for it because in the end...even if it was for a short time...” Taeyong halted their walking and looked Yuta directly in the eyes before continuing his speech. “I got to be yours and you got to be mine.”

 

Yuta gave Taeyong’s hand a squeeze. “Lee Taeyong, I love you.” He smiled brightly.

 

“I love you too.” Taeyong smiled back.

 

They walked for a many more minutes before Yuta spoke up again. “I do have to say this though. We have to win at all costs. There’s still some stuff I want to do.”

 

“Like what.”

 

“I’m not dying a virgin.” Yuta let go of Taeyong’s hand. “RACE YOU BACK TO THE APARTMENT!” He shouted with a shit eating grin on his face.

 

“NAKAMOTO YUTA!” Taeyong slapped his hands over his red face in embarrassment. “This kid will kill me before he sees me with my pants off.” He mumbled to himself before dashing off after the latter.

 

Yuta beats Taeyong by a foot step.  Out of breathe Taeyong unlocks his apartment door. Yuta follows behind. Their cheeks are wind bitten and rosy. Taeyong’s embarrassment has long since been lost along with Yuta’s grin. Now there’s something else arising. Yuta puts his lips on Taeyong’s painfully slowly. He shuts the door quietly with his butt when Taeyong pushes him against it. Lust.

 

** *

 

There’s a brief moment where they sort themselves out. Removing jackets and gloves before Yuta’s back is against the couch and Taeyong is hovering over him. Their T-shirts follow shortly after. Kisses become quicker, sloppier. It’s suddenly a lot less gentle and a whole lot more needy. Tonight Yuta’s reasons for wanting to win altered a bit. They need to win now because round one is desperately asking both of them for round two.

 

** *

 

~~

 

Johnny folds his arms and rests them against the balcony railing. “It’s fucking cold.”

 

“You’re telling me.” Ten pulls the blanket he stole off of Johnny’s couch tighter around him. He leans closer into Johnny in the process of wrapping part of the blanket around the elder.

 

They look out at the city night. Ten loves the view. He loves it at night so much more. It’s quiet but the building lights are so loud. No cars, no honking, but there are still footsteps. There are murmurs of conversation. The stoplights still run. There are hues of neon reds, yellows and oranges. Billboards are illuminated and worn down blinking signage still hangs. Your ears become deaf to conversation from below and your eyes hear everything.

 

Ten looks into Johnny’s eyes and the taller keeps focused on what’s in front of him. Ten sees the lights reflected in the other’s eyes and he tries to guess what this view does to Johnny. What does he feel when he looks at the lights. Does conversation drain from his ears?

 

“I feel the same.”

 

“Huh?” Ten’s eyebrows furrow.

 

“The city. The lights.” Johnny turns and looks at the raven haired boy. “Ya know, the lights, they're the voice of the city. No one can put into words what your eyes tell you when you see the view.”

 

Ten is shocked. Completely, utterly shocked and in love. He fucking loves Johnny Seo and all this nonsense that makes so much sense to them that’s spouting out of his mouth. “Johnny we better fucking win.”

 

Johnny cards a hand through Ten’s hair.

 

“I want to be with the guys longer. I want to be with you longer. I want to see this view and know I don’t have to explain all the feelings it gives me because the person next to me already understands.” Ten looks out at the buildings. “Johnny I really love you and—and I’m really fucking tired.”

 

Johnny laughs and keeps petting Ten’s hair. “I know buddy. I’m tired too.”

 

Ten hits him playful on the chest. “Dumbass tell me you love me too.” He slurs out, eyes fluttering and a yawn following.

 

Johnny laughs again. “I love you Ten. Very very much.” He pulls the others chin up and leans down to seal his words with a kiss.

 

Ten wraps his arms around Johnny’s neck. The blanket that once surrounded them is now splayed on the balcony floor. Ten is pulled flush against Johnny’s chest. The kiss though, still remains chaste.

 

Moments later Johnny pulls back and grabs the discarded blanket. He wraps Ten, who is completely dazed, tightly and pecks his lips once more. “I want to do one more thing before we pass out.” Johnny disappears into the apartment before reappearing in seconds. “Here.” Johnny lights up a smoke and passes it to Ten before he lights one for himself.

 

“If EXO doesn’t kill us, these sure fucking will.” Ten puffs out.

 

They both laugh.

 

~~

 

“It’ll be okay. Shhh.” Doyoung rubs Haechan’s back. “We’re going to be okay.”

 

Haechan sobs. “I’m scared Doyoung hyung. I close my eyes and all I feel is regret. I yelled at Tae hyung. I made you all worry. I’ve bothered Mark hyung with my worries and now I’m going to fail us all.” His grip on Doyoung’s shirt tightened.

 

“Hae you aren’t going to disappoint us. Calm down. It’s all okay now. All you have to do is your best and no one will be mad.”

 

“Hyung I’m so scared.” Haechan chokes out another sob. His tears stain Doyoung’s shirt.

 

“I know, I know.” Doyoung feels himself becoming choked up as well. “I—Haechan this—the way you feel right now and for all these events. I’m sorry. This is really all my fault.”

 

Jaehyun couldn’t help but laugh when he walked in the absolute mess that was Haechan and Doyoung. They had obviously passed out from crying. All that was left of them was a tangle of limbs, sniffles, damp cheeks and shirts. He walked over and brushed some strands of hair away from Haechan’s forehead then pressed a gentle kiss to his temple. He then leaned over and gave a light kiss to Doyoung’s lips. The contact caused the elder to stir a bit.

 

“Jae?”

 

“Yeah, it’s me. I was gonna let you too stay sleeping but with the mess you’re in you’d both wake up sore.”

 

Doyoung nodded and gracefully escaped Haechan’s death grip on his shirt. “Help me get him under the covers. He can have my bed to himself again.”

 

Jaehyun picked up Haechan while Doyoung pulled the covers back. They set the younger down and put the covers over him.

 

“Is eomma and appa asleep?”

 

“Yeah. We can sit in the restaurant for a bit. Shops been closed for a while now. I just finished cleaning up and came to check up on you two. Didn’t think I’d find you guys like that.” Jaehyun chuckled.

 

Doyoung looks down at Haechan’s sleeping body. He whispers out another apology before Jaehyun takes him by the hand and leads him downstairs.

 

“Sit, I made coffee.”

 

Doyoung plops himself down into the booth up against the window. “Isn’t it bad to have coffee this late? Shouldn’t we sleep?”

 

“Do you think you could fall back to sleep right now?”

 

“No.”

 

“Then drink the coffee.” Jaehyun pushes the mug towards him and sits beside him.

 

Doyoung takes a long sip. He positions his head so he can see out the window and up at the sky. There thousands of stars but it doesn’t compare to the millions they see up on the mountain. “Jaehyun?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Is it bad that sometimes I think I want to lose this race?”

 

“Well what are your reasons for wanting that?” Jaehyun grabs Doyoung’s hand. Doyoung is still refusing to look at him.

 

“I just think that if we lost and they break our bikes and they break us. Then...then I wouldn’t ever be nervous again, I wouldn’t have to cry anymore, I wouldn’t feel pain. I’d just be gone and sometimes the thought of that is so good. It isn’t even possible but feeling nothing must feel so good.”

 

Jaehyun thinks about his words for a moment. Jaehyun has thought about death many times but never this way. He never considered the “end” a good or great thing. Although, he does understand what Doyoung is saying. The feeling of having no feelings is certainly greater than any small amount of pain and sadness. “Do you want that? Death, I mean death. Do you want that?”

 

“I did. Now, not so much.” Doyoung finally looks Jaehyun in the eyes. “You’ve made it quite difficult for me to wish for a reality that excludes you.” Doyoung places his coffee down and continues. “I don’t believe in a heaven Jae. When we die it’ll be the end, nothing, just absolutely emptiness. So if there really is a heaven it would be right here right now on earth. I don’t want this race to end with the “end” I want the road to continue to heaven. I want to win. I want to stay in heaven with you.”

 

“Hmm I think heaven is all things in life that make it good. Everything can’t be heaven because if heaven is right here and right now that means hell is present as well. This race is hell. The victory is heaven. The loss is _the end_.”

 

“I guess you’re right.” Doyoung took a sip of his coffee. “I’m going to fight for heaven. I will escape hell and swerve _the end._ I’ll do this all as long as in the end I can still have you, _my heaven._ ”

 

“ _You_ will win this, _we_ will win this.” Jaehyun pulled Doyoung’s face to his so their noses were touching. “Also we shouldn’t get so philosophical so late at night.”

 

Doyoung laughed. “Why? Did I make you cry Jae?”

 

“Yeah ya did, fuck you. I’m tired and here you are telling me you wanted to die but now I’m your heaven and you want to live with me forever and fuck you. Of course I would cry.”

 

Before Jaehyun could pull away to wipe his eyes Doyoung pulled him into a kiss. Jaehyun, working with minimal space, managed to pull Doyoung onto his lap. Doyoung would praise his booth manoeuvring skills later. Right now they had other things on their mind.

 

Jaehyun placed his hands on Doyoung’s waist. Doyoung pulled at Jaehyun’s hair. Lost in the moment of each other and the moment they didn’t notice...

 

“This _end_ you speak about. I want it.” Haechan turned and made his way back up the stairs.

 

Doyoung hid his face in Jaehyun’s neck. Both were red faced from the interruption and embarrassment.  They laughed it off before continuing where they had ended.

 

~~

 

The alarm clock was jolting. Taeyong made sure to slap it hard so it wouldn’t beep again. “Race day?” He mumbled.

 

“Yeah.” Yuta answered back softly.

 

“Fuck me.”

 

“Later.”

 

~~

 

Ten and Johnny were first to the garage. Johnny did maintenance on the bikes as the crew arrived. Ten would pass off tools and rags with his good hand. His other hand was still heavily wrapped.

 

“Convenient, the start and finish of the race is just two minutes from the garage. You think that Suho guy was trying to be nice?” Taeyong’s eyes were scanning over the map.

 

“Mmm I thinking more along the lines of ‘when we win and kill them we can throw the bodies easily back in that garage of theirs, make it look like an internal conflict.’” Jaehyun said dryly.

 

“Touche.” Taeyong said and placed the map down on the coffee table for others to see. “Haechan this is your starting point.” Taeyong placed his finger down where the paper city ends and the country begins. Haechan nods and Taeyong continues to point everyone out. “Yuta you’re here, Johnny is here and Doyoung you will be starting over here then finishing at the garage.” The boys nod in understanding.

 

“When do we split to our relay positions?” Doyoung looked up at Taeyong.

 

The eldest glanced down at his watch, biting his bottom lip. “We have twenty minutes to get to our posts.”

 

Silence filled the room and crushed them.

 

“Let’s fucking win this.” Ten shattered the quiet and everyone’s eyes reached Ten’s. “Me and Jae we’ll be here waiting for you guys, cheering you on. Mark, I know he’s rooting for us too. We’re all in this shit together and we’re gonna fucking win I god damn know we will.” Ten looked down at the floor in thought of what to say next. “Also, I love you guys and if they take this all away from us I don’t know what I’ll do. I want to be together for a long time. What I’m trying to say here is that it’s time for a group hug.”

 

“That’s pretty gay.” Yuta jokes.

 

Taeyong pecks Yuta’s cheek. “What’s fucking new darling?!”

 

“Okay that’s enough just get in the hug circle hyungs.” Haechan made a gagging action when he turned back to look at Ten. Ten laughed.

 

They hugged it out. Arms were around shoulders and waists. It never got awkward; they didn’t have time to be. It was now or never and they chose now.

 

Yuta left first with Haechan. He took the responsibility of making sure the youngest would be set up in his relay position before driving off to his own.

 

Johnny left next. Ten raced out of the garage and when he knew he was clear of anyone he kissed Johnny on the lips. “I’ll see you soon yeah?”

 

“Yeah, when we win lets go on date number two.”

 

“I’d like that.”

 

Doyoung was last to live since Taeyong would be here for the start of the race.

 

“Bunny!” Jaehyun pulled Doyoung into his arms. “Don’t be nervous okay. Just do you.”

 

Doyoung wrapped his arms around the younger’s neck. “I’ll drive right into your arms, _my heaven._ ” With that said he leaned forward and planted a quick kiss to Jaehyun’s lips.

 

Jaehyun couldn’t recognize this version of Doyoung. He seemed so ridiculously strong, not a drip of nerves was oozing from him. He was proud. His faith and Doyoung wouldn’t falter this race would be theirs to claim.

 

~~

 

“Look who we have here.”

 

Haechan turned his head away from his competitor. It was that guy named Sehun from the night before.

 

“Did you say hi to my friend?”

 

“What friend?” Haechan muttered back.

 

“My old pal Mark, we’ve had a history that goes way back. Has he not told you yet? Or was his brain damaged enough that he’d forgotten?”

 

At first not much was making sense to Haechan. This guy sounded crazy but once he thought back to Mark’s words from the other night things began to connect.

 

“Ya know sometimes I don’t stay in my lane well. If you ask Mark about that he’d agree. Did he at least warn you?” The boy snickered. “Your leader would have a fit if he knew I was with you. He didn’t recognize me either.” Sehun’s mouth curved into a smile that gave Haechan the chills like he had received that one night.

 

“There’s no way. You can’t be—”

 

“Hahaha you finally got it you idiot.” Sehun slid his fingers over a small dent on his bike before looking Haechan dead in the eyes. “You better hope you end up as well as Mark did.”

 

~~

 

Doyoung breathed in and out. He closed and opened his eyes slowly. He parked his bike quietly and remained seated. Another biker pulled up beside him.

 

“Anchor of this race?”

 

“Yeah.” Doyoung sighed. “I’m assuming you’re my competition.”

 

“You’d be right.” The latter extended a hand to shake. “Name’s Chen.”

 

“Right. I’m D—”

 

“Oh trust me kid, I know who you are.”

 

“Uh yeah that would make sense.” Doyoung scratched the back of his neck.  His nerves didn’t resurface until he heard it. Far in the distance the faint shot of a gun and skids of tires. The vomit that was dammed up in his stomach made its way to the back of his throat.

 

The race had begun.


	13. Under the Streetlights on my Bike, you and I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is one long ass race. Taeyong is strategic. Haechan has a plan. Yuta thinks of his love. Johnny is a beast. Doyoung lives up to his name. The conclusion?...

_The race had begun._

 

Taeyong braced himself in the final moments before the shot went off.  In these final moments Taeyong took the time to glance over his opponent. Suho looked calm, ready and completely confident. In an effort to gain his composure he mimicked him. He took in a deep breath and bringing his gaze back onto the street ahead of him. _Compose Taeyong, stay composed, don’t think of him or it’ll make things harder._ His thoughts became incomprehensible when the man named Chanyeol stepped in between their bikes. Firing off the round he had in his large hand and bringing Taeyong back to the present moment.

 

Taeyong snapped his wrist forward and kept his body from lurching back from the jolt of movement. Suho was right beside him. Taeyong didn’t have to worry about a dirty race. While Suho was a crazy individual he had picked up that the guy was a stickler for old rules. This would be a fair fight between the two of them.  Usually that would make Taeyong worry less about the outcome but if this was just to be a straight up race there is high probability he’s going to lose his leg of the race. His bike in comparison’s to Suho’s is far inferior. Right of the bat he knew he was going to have some improvisations to do.

 

Strategy number one, the only strategy Taeyong knew would give him the best chance of finishing close with Suho. Suho wasn’t stupid so he knew he had to act this out carefully and precisely. He let his grip on the handle loosen just slightly, enough that it looked like Suho was the one increasing speed and Taeyong was staying at the same pace. From there Taeyong waited it out slowly. As soon as Suho was about five car lengths in front of him he lined himself up directly behind the older. The distance was to ensure Suho wouldn’t catch on.

 

Taeyong knew at this rate he would have a good chance of reaching the latter’s rear before the end of their leg approaches. Sneakily, Taeyong inched his wrist forward increasing his speed. He hazard every nod of the head Suho made that could turn into a back check and just like he calculated, he made it. He was in a successful position to slipstream off of Suho. He was so god damn lucky that for one, Suho wasn’t going as fast as he could, two, he never noticed what Taeyong was doing and three, his position was secured.

 

Suho did eventually come to notice the trailer. Though he felt ridiculous for letting such a cheap tactic slip by him he knew there was nothing that could be done at this point. If he stopped both him and Taeyong would crash, if he swerved Taeyong had good enough handling to follow. He just had to face the fact that their leg would finish as a close call.

 

Haechan could hear the rumbling of the motors approaching.  His emotions had been stable for the most part until Sehun dropped the fucking bomb on him twenty minutes ago. Now he’s a fucking mess and back at square one. Just this time he’s not crying, thankfully. His forearms trembled and he griped the handles as if he were trying to suffocate them.

 

He had come to realize in this short time that this was he had to do. There was no changing how things have happened over the past few days. He’s going to have to his best and hope that in the end they were destined to win. One more thing kept Haechan grounded during this time of flight. Mark’s revenge. Mark obviously couldn’t do it himself and Haechan would do anything for his hyung. Sehun had a fucking scolding hot plate coming at him in Mark’s name.

 

The engines became clearer. In a last attempt to still any last shaking nerve Haechan let out a soft cuss. He pulled the racing goggles down over his eyes. Jaehyun lent them to him a couple months ago. Today they came in handy. Off to the side he can hear a snicker but he doesn’t look. If he were to look at Sehun right now his resolve would break for sure. Instead he rests an unwavering glance to the road ahead, his future path.

 

Taeyong and Suho are close, _a little more, almost there, right about-NOW -_ “Haechan GO GO GO!” Taeyong shouts and the screeching of his breaks pierce Haechan’s ears. Suho’s voice is nearly silenced by the commotion but he too is calling for the next in line on his team.

 

Both boys lurch their bikes forward. Haechan’s and Sehun’s leg begin.

 

Like Taeyong predicted, he and Suho finished essentially at the same time. This gave Haechan zero head start. It also gave Taeyong the opportunity to catch another glance at Sehun. He had seen the other before at the garage when he received the map though he couldn’t make a connection to the familiarity of his face. Even now he just couldn’t put a finger on why the boy appeared as someone he may know. He had to let it slide for now; there were larger things at stake then putting a story to a person’s face.

 

“Holy shit, how unlucky. Your youngest going up against mine? That’s gonna be fucked up Sehun doesn’t play nice.” Suho speaks between soft pants.

 

“Sehun? Sehun. _Se-hun?”_  Taeyong mutters to himself, that name, that face, _oh fuck._ Taeyong’s knees go weak and he falls. He throws his hands out so he ends up on his hands and knees. Glancing up at the rears of the bikes ahead he screams.

 

They’re driving down the road the only thing separating them is the thin yellow line that runs the middle. It isn’t wide enough to make Haechan feel secure in the presence of the other. He knows at some point the asshole beside him is gonna people something funny. It’s just he doesn’t know when and it’s driving him nuts. Concentrating on the road, his speed, steering and the fucker to the right is just too much at once. The worst part is that he knows Sehun knows he’s overwhelmed. It’s what the older wants.

 

It’s been ten minutes of Sehun teasing him. Swift but small swerves coming at him, it’s nothing that will connect their bikes but enough for Haechan to slow up or hesitate. The fifth time he comes at him Haechan makes the mistake of staying put and the metal of their bikes makes a small ting noise. Haechan jerks his bike away and he can hear the laugh of the latter.

 

“I’m coming for ya kid!” Sehun leans towards him and throws another clip shot. Haechan dodges but at the price of falling behind slightly.

 

“Fuck.” Haechan mumbles out. _Just take a deep breath. You can do this, do it for Mark hyung._ Haechan left this as a last resort when he was chalking up ideas after tuning into who Sehun is. There isn’t much you can do to defend against a person who clips that won’t make you lose. The easiest way would be to stay behind them but you also run the risk of them stopping and you rear ending them. Sehun’s aggression wasn’t letting up so he was going with the only option he had. Clip the clipper. Even if it meant he too would lose control.

 

His safest bet at pulling this maneuver off was to clip Sehun at the exact time the other motioned to do the same. It would throw them both off but Haechan would be quicker to brace for impact. In that case he could get back onto his bike first. That is if it all plays out like how he’s imagined it.

 

Haechan is getting antsy; Sehun has stayed in the other lane for a while now. Probably just to throw him off but Haechan just wants to get this over with now. As he’s internally complaining Haechan nearly misses his opportunity to fight back against the EXO member. Sehun comes sideways at him and Haechan jerks his handle to the right, directing himself at Sehun’s front tire. Haechan misses it but the shock on Sehun’s face would have been a golden view. Their tries meet and both bikes repel falling onto their sides. From that point on everything is in slow motion for the drivers.

 

Haechan feels weightless and he knows he’s god damn lucky that Sehun is being thrown off as well. He isn’t lucky in the fact that he’s going to have to brace himself for his impact against pavement. He hoped he’s reach the grass on the sides of the road but nope! His left shoulder hits the ground first and his body skids a bit. His left hand gets caught under his side ways body and takes the brunt of the skid as well. To make things worse the recoil from hitting the ground causes his head to smack against the ground. High on his left side of the forehead a gash opens and trickles a slow stream of blood. His readiness for the crash certainly lessened the damage because he was still cognitive, dizzy, but he can stand. In fact he stands way too quick for what just happened. He’s got a race to finish though. He’s got a race to win.

 

Sehun didn’t take the fall well but he’s not dead. He stumbles getting up and there’s blood pouring from his noise and from a gash hidden by his hair on the side of his head.

 

Haechan reached his bike and with all his might he pulled it back up to its standing position. He seated himself taking a deep breath before retaining focus back in his vision. That was the most metal thing he’s ever done and he can’t wait to tell the guys. “This was for Mark hyung, bye fucker.” Haechan twists his body back to looks at Sehun, who is still getting himself upright. He gives him the finger before turning around and driving off.

 

Haechan wipes the blood dripping over his brow. He did it and Sehun is gonna have a hell of a time catching up to win the leg of the race. He can see Yuta hyung in the distance and he eases his body which was tensed to the point he didn’t even notice. His voice cracks but he still calls out loud and proudly. “YUTA HYUNG GO!”

 

Yuta doesn’t get a chance to look back at Haechan he’s too focused on his job but he does shout back before jolting forward. “Way to go kid!”

 

Haechan halts himself and he looks over to see the next EXO member waiting for Sehun, its D.O.

 

“Fuck, how unlucky you got placed against _him._ ” He does give a genuine look of pity for Haechan but it passes quickly. “Can’t believe you beat him though, he is not gonna like that. You’re not gonna wanna stick around here waiting for him.”

 

Haechan is hyper aware of that and if his body could keep driving he would have drove off. The problem is he’s close to blacking out, he overexerted himself after the crash and he’s paying the price for it. He can see Sehun approaching too. His bad luck begins to fade when he feels a gentle hand on his back. Haechan looks up to see another EXO crew member, they have guys positioned at each check point. He has a childish face but his presence makes says he’s much older.

 

“It’s okay kid, it’s my job to make sure the unfair play fairly.”

 

“Bring him back to the start line will yah Xiumin.”

 

The boy with soft features nods and pulls Haechan up from his bike. Sehun pulls in and D.O rushes off. Haechan gets one last glance of Sehun’s bloody face. There’s no emotion, he’s just breathing fast. It gives him chills but in the end he did it. He got revenge and that’s all that matters. With that sense of accomplishment Haechan blacks out and falls into the arms of the gentle stranger.

 

~~

 

Yuta is moving as fast as possible, milking his head start for all its worth. He thinks about his lead but he doesn’t want to think about winning. Anything can happen in a second and he’s aware that the person he’s racing is going to catch up.

 

He’s thinking too much and he knows it’s going to hinder his abilities so he put his mind in a place that makes him feel safe. He thinks of Taeyong...

 

_“Yuta we’re moving isn’t that exciting?!” Yuta’s mother pinches his cheeks._

_“Mama what about my friends? I don’t want to leave them Mama.” Tears threaten to spill from his eyes._

_“Baby don’t cry.” Taking her child’s face in her hands she tenderly rubs the tears that spill from his cheeks. “Papa has to move for work now baby. We have to even though we might not want to. I’m sorry baby, it’ll all be okay though I promise.”_

_Yuta’s legs are too short to reach the floor when he’s sitting in his chair. School is hard, it’s so so hard and the new language is intimidating. His teacher tries their best but when it becomes too much Yuta gives up and cries. Nobody talks to him because no one can and he’s just so damn lonely. He swings his legs back and forth and waits for the bell to ring indicating break time._

_He goes outside for break and plays with a discarded soccer ball. He likes soccer, and he’s pretty good at it. He does a couple tricks but fumbles with the ball after getting passed a compliment. In his native language. He looks over his shoulder and sees the timid boy that sits in front of him in class._

_The boy introduces himself in Japanese and Yuta replies the same. Taeyong, this shy kid, tells him he’ll help him learn Korean. Yuta takes the offer. He just wants a friend and apparently that’s all Taeyong wanted too._

_Yuta becomes very close to Taeyong. The other kids in class don’t pay attention to them; they had both become nobodies within the ranks to begin with. They’re okay like that though because Taeyong draws Yuta pictures and teaches him well and Yuta doesn’t overwhelm Taeyong._

_Yuta falls for Taeyong pretty quickly. It’s when he pushes Taeyong on the swing and the other giggles or when the other draws he and Yuta together that something in his tiny chest flutters._

_It’s all these small actions that eventually lead up to the park, to their breakdowns, to their confession and kiss._

Yuta replays the last moment they had together and how intimate it was. How Taeyong’s back arched like his own, how pleasant it was to fall asleep bare chest to bare chest. He thinks _yes that painful move was all worth it. It was worth not knowing Korean because he got Lee Taeyong._

Yuta takes in a shaky breath and he can see Johnny in the distance. The other racer is trailing close behind him but he’s done his part. He’s got this leg to claim. He sighs in relief before choking out “HIT THE GAS JOHNNY!”

 

Johnny snapped his wrist and drove forward. His opponent starting up shortly after. The other never spoke a word to Johnny in the time that they were waiting for the other’s to arrive. It was odd but it wasn’t like Johnny was about to initiate conversation himself.

 

He held the lead for the majority of the race, not by much though. As they were approaching the edge of the city, the course part that led into the country successfully completed, Johnny felt his bike beginning to slow down. He knew it was something out of his control because his grip on the gas hadn’t changed. The rider behind gave him a cheeky smile as he passed, taking the lead.

 

Johnny glanced behind him and _oh fuck_ he was leaking gas. Which he should have been able to smell if it weren’t for his fucking cold. The tank was almost empty and his bike came to a still. He was five minutes off from reaching Doyoung and he knew the rules. Both rider and bike must reach their next in line for the race to continue.

 

Johnny isn’t gonna take the blame for a lost race so he hops off his bike and bears down. He puts all the strength in his arms and legs and gives the bike some forward momentum. Once the bike is at steady forward pace from his continuous pushing he quickens it. He’s using everything he has. He knows he won’t catch up but he’s gonna make sure Doyoung has a chance.

 

Thoughts of his crew keep him going. His lungs are burning but it’s nothing compared to the way Ten takes oxygen from him. Ten is a good thought; it gives him a second wind and now he’s running like a mad man. He’s just gotta reach Doyoung, for his crew for Ten...

 

_It’s the third time this week that Johnny sees the boy in the convenience store he works at. He’s much smaller than Johnny and he has a gabillion piercings illuminating his ears. He’s also definitely very very cute and Johnny kinda wants to talk to him but he’s also stuck up about keeping his cold image and he knows if this kid ever smiled in front of him he was goner._

_Well he was a goner to begin with so what did it fucking matter. He strikes up a conversation and gets to know him. The kid has a long name and a short name. He likes the short name best so Johnny uses it. Turns out they both fancy work in the mechanical field and Ten’s trying to find a job. How convenient that Johnny just happens to be in a crew with some childhood friends and he could use an extra hand. He gives Ten an offer._

_Ten accepts. That wasn’t the last of Johnny’s offers. He offers him a room when his dad becomes too much. He offers him comfort and an ear to listen. He offers him happiness in a gloomy word. One night he even offers a kiss. Ten accepts all of them and in return he offers himself because that’s all Johnny needs and all Ten needs is Johnny._

Johnny keeps moving ahead and he can finally see Doyoung. His body is screaming stop but he can hear Ten’s voice in the back of his head _let’s go on date number two_ and Johnny clenches his jaw and runs faster.

 

He finally hits the leg finish line and calls out. “GO!” He lets his bike crash on its side before he too falls. He pants then looked up and knows he’s done his part now and it’s time to put his solid faith in Doyoung.

 

~~

 

Doyoung’s wait feels like years. He’s dying for Johnny to just show up already so he can get this race done with. The thoughts of the finish line are the only thing on his mind. He can’t afford of thinking of anything or _anyone_ else less it hinder his performance.

 

 _Fuck fuck fuck HOLY FUCK._ It’s been a long time and the fourth position racers should be appearing at any moment. Doyoung thought he was ready and now he ain’t really feelin it. _If Johnny comes around that bend I’m jumping off a cl-_

Doyoung’s thoughts get cut off by the fourth rider from EXO approaching. “Johnny you better fucking be here.” He whines to himself, he’s so goddamn conflicted.

 

The rider, Chen, beside him departs from his position comes crawling to a stop. Johnny comes bolting around the corner running and Doyoung face palms. He hears Johnny call for him to go and he does.

 

So now Doyoung is here, in the present moment, barreling down the city roads in a desperate attempt to catch up to Chen.  He’s lucky he can see the biker in the distance. It means he still has a chance.

 

~~

 

Jaehyun picks at his nails. He’s been waiting patiently at the finish and he knows damn well that race will be over soon but he’s trying to put that to the side. Ten is sitting beside him. They plopped down on the curb of the road just past the finish line. Ten is just as nervous as he plays with the wrap around his wrist.

 

“Jae, can I tell you something?”

 

Jaehyun looks up at the Thai boy with eyes that say _go ahead._

 

“I love Johnny.”

 

Ten, to be honest, thought Jaehyun would have choked, laughed, and sputtered or whatever. He didn’t expect him to pull him into a side hug. He also gave this look that said _I know and I bet it’s all you can think about right now. I know it hurts._ So Ten just drops his head onto his shoulder and leans in. Even if it distracts them from the awful moment for a just a few seconds it’s just what they need to keep their hopes up.

 

“Come on Doyoung, I know you can do it.” Jaehyun whispers out and it’s probably the last thing he says coherently that day.

 

~~

 

The distance has stayed the same for the past fifteen minutes and its aggravating Doyoung to no end. He’s in dire need of closing it as quick as possible. The problem is he has a plan, but he isn’t sure if the plain pertains to the rules. Doyoung knows the in and outs of this city and he knows there’s an underground tunnel which was mostly used for pedestrians. The thing is that the tunnel cuts corners and intersection efficiently and there’s an opening that’s five minutes from the finish line. Technically it is on the highlighted route. The thing is if EXO calls him out for it he knows he’s gonna lose. Although he’s gonna lose if he doesn’t use it anyway.

 

He has two more minutes to contemplate his decision as the first opening approaches. “Fuck it.” Doyoung swiftly veers off to the right. He descends down the ramp until his out of sight from the surface world. He prays his opponent doesn’t notice his absence or doesn’t care.

 

The tunnel is illuminated with soft yellow light. It eerily brings him back to the night this all started. Riding under those streetlights all banged up. He doesn’t have the luxury to pity himself right now though. He’s caused this mess and put everyone in jeopardy. Right now it’s time to focus on cleaning this all up.

 

He makes a sharp turn and picks up speed; he’s reached the final stretch of the tunnel. It’s a long path that eventually leads to a ramp up where he’ll have to make a quick right then travel to the finish. He better pray to God that Chen is behind him by now, if he meets him at the exit it’s gonna be a real close call. A close call really can’t be afforded for the last leg of the race.

 

~~

 

Jaehyun and Ten hear the hum of an approaching engine and it startles them out of their daze. They relax when they find it’s just a crew member from EXO coming from the opposite direction of the finish. Their relaxation is short lived when they see Haechan slumped against the back of the driver.

 

Jaehyun stands abruptly before rushing over to Haechan. “What the FUCK did you do to him?” Jaehyun yells at the EXO member.

 

“Hyung.” Haechan calls out softly trying to straighten his back. “It’s okay he...ugh...

 

“Xiumin.”

 

“ahhh, Xiumin hyung helped me out, don’t be mad at him. Besides I’m mostly like this because of myself.”

 

Jaehyun stiffened regretting his threat at Haechan’s confession. He watched Xiumin take the boy off the bike and then took the youngest when the eldest past him over into his arms.

 

Xiumin put his hand on Haechan’s shoulder. “I have some towels to wipe the blood away.” He looked up at Jaehyun. “Is it alright if help him out.” Jaehyun nodded in reply.

 

“Hyung stay with me.” Haechan put a hand over his chest, finding it hard to breath and his legs were becoming weaker by the minute.

 

Jaehyun cupped his face in his hands. “Hey, kiddo, you’re okay now, everything is going to be okay.” Releasing his face he guided Haechan over to Xiumin.

 

Ten came up and rubbed Haechan’s back before going to keep his finish line look out position.

 

~~

 

_The exit comes in three, two, one..._

The light from the surface hits Doyoung’s eyes. By now he’s driving like an absolute mad man. Long forgotten the concern over Chen he just keeps heading towards the finish. He completes his sharp right and it’s a straight line from here on out.

 

The line becomes visible; he’s almost there, holy fuck he’s almost there. He closes his eyes until he’s finally _there._

 

~~

 

Johnny hasn’t been able to move from his spot for hours. Bike out of gas and he’s tired as shit. He’ll wait it out until he can walk in the morning or something. It hasn’t really hit him either that the race is probably over. They’re either getting their asses beat silly or...or...he doesn’t even know what they were gonna do if they won.

 

His plans to walk in the morning are canceled by oncoming head lights. Ten’s bike.

 

“JOHNNY!”

 

The older looks at the small figure that climbs off the bike and comes dashing towards him. He prepares himself for the younger and successfully receives the body flung at him.

 

“Babe why are you crying, please don’t tell me, Ten my god don’t tell me Tenny.”

 

The younger softly sobs into the elder’s shoulder. “Johnny we...

 

~~

 

Doyoung crosses the line and he doesn’t even get a chance to shut off his bike when there are already arms around his neck. The embrace is followed by tears staining his shirt. “Jae, Jae, did we do it?”

 

There’s no response only soft hiccups and Jaehyun presses in closer to him. “Jae please answer-

 

As he stresses for a response Doyoung turns around to see Chen pulling past the finish line. He parks beside him and speaks up. “Should have known you’d know these streets like the back of your hand.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Good race.” He extends a hand to shake.

 

~~

 

They’ve won but they don’t celebrate, they’ll leave that till tomorrow. For now they just want to sort their tired selves out. Ten declares he’s going to get Johnny after hearing from his opponent about his predicament.

 

Taeyong sorts things out with Suho. There really isn’t much to say. Taeyong is given the money for winning and from there they just have to pretend this never happened.

 

Jaehyun and Doyoung take Haechan to the hospital and that’s pretty much it. It leaves Taeyong and Yuta at the finish line faced with the after math.

 

“Did that really just happen Yuta. I feel like we haven’t really won.”

 

“Tae.” Yuta takes the other boys’ face in his hands. “It’s done, we won Tae, and we’re free from them.” Yuta smiles so bright it almost kills Taeyong.

 

Taeyong snakes his arms around Yuta’s waist and kisses him. He conveys every bit of love he has in his body. “Yuta I love you so much.”

 

“Does that mean I can finally move in with you officially?”

 

“Anything for you my prince~”

 

Yuta giggles and it’s absolutely contagious. Taeyong keeps peppering him in soft kisses. Soft kisses turn harder and Yuta parts their faces. “Up for round two?”

 

~~

 

When Doyoung and Jaehyun get back to their place it’s late and their exhausted. Jaehyun hasn’t said much and it’s keeping Doyoung on edge.

 

They strip down to boxers and shirts and Doyoung sits on the edge of the bed. “Jae are you okay?”

 

Jaehyun looks up as he’s pulling off his sock. He looks to the floor and his eyes glisten in the light seeping in through the window.

 

“Jae don’t cry.” Doyoung pulls the younger towards him. “What’s wrong?”

 

“I’m just...I’m just...Doyoung I love you a lot.”

 

The older doesn’t respond he just pulls Jaehyun into a desperate kiss. Jaehyun moves and to sit and then pulls his hyung into his lap. Their lips never disconnect. He rubs small little circles with the pads of his thumbs into Doyoung’s hips. The older shivers and runs his hands through Jaehyun’s brown curls.

 

Jaehyun sighs and brings his lips down to trail kisses along Doyoung’s neck. He reaches his collarbone and sucks gently releasing a sigh from the orange haired boy’s lips.

 

“Finally got _my heaven_ didn’t I?” Doyoung smiles tenderly.

 

“Yeah, and I got mine.” Jaehyun comes up to look the other in the eye and pecks him the lips. “It’s been a long day but you’re not tired are you?”

 

“Not at all.” Doyoung laughs.

 

“Shall we go to the hill?” Jaehyun grabs Doyoung’s hand in his.

 

“I’d really like that.” Doyoung blushes when Jaehyun kisses the back of his hand because gestures like those are just so much more embarrassing.

 

Doyoung dresses in his stylish red windbreaker and Jaehyun is wearing his re-stitched jacket. “Mark did a great job, oh by the way how do you think Haechan will be waking up in Mark’s room?” Jaehyun laughs at the thought.

 

“I’ve been rooting for them for two years. He better be grateful that we pulled strings and got him in there Mark.” Doyoung followed after Jaehyun out their window and to the stairs.

 

Jaehyun took driver spot and Doyoung curled his arms around the latter’s waist. He rested his head on Jaehyun’s back and breathed in his sent. Even after this painful journey he feels so relaxed. His mind is tremendously peaceful.

 

They hit the highway and like usual it’s lit up by one thing. The streetlights. Their light pools in small surfaces on the ground and light up their faces. It’s so comforting and peaceful how the yellow hues guide them to brighter lights in the night sky.

 

Doyoung squeezes Jaehyun tighter and thinks, _I love motorcycles and streetlights and Jung Jaehyun._  

 

**_~FIN~_ **

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Inside a Page Break](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8373523) by [duckhyuck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckhyuck/pseuds/duckhyuck), [puglover409](https://archiveofourown.org/users/puglover409/pseuds/puglover409)




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